Media

29.2 million tune-in to royal wedding in US as NBC, Fox News nab viewership wins

The numbers are in.

The royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle scored huge ratings across the U.S., with an estimated 29.2 million people tuning in across 15 networks and NBC and Fox News winning the ratings’ battle with the most viewers.

In broadcast media, NBC finished first with 6.4 million viewers, with ABC a close second with 6.34 million. The Comcast-owned NBC sent 10 correspondents to London for the highly anticipated event.

{mosads}

In cable media, Fox News led in total viewers Saturday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. EDT with 2.04 million tuning in. CNN was second with 1.764 million and MSNBC was third with 987,000.

CNN captured the most viewers in the key 25-54 demographic, 601,000, compared with Fox News’s 447,000 and MSNBC’s 243,000.

The total viewership for the ceremony was considerably higher than it was for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding in April 2011, which drew 22.8 million but was aired on 11 networks compared to this year’s 15 networks.

In the U.K., 18 million Britons tuned in, with BBC capturing 13.1 million viewers and easily beating its competition during the ceremony.

The networks that carried the event live included ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, CNN, HLN, MSNBC, HLN, PBS, BBC America, CNN, E!, TLC, Telemundo and Univision.