Sunday, May 1, 2011

Not Terribly Successful?


Unless you live under a rock, you are probably aware that the Royal wedding took place this past Friday. Well, the ratings are out-- according to The Wrap, only 22.7 million Americans set their alarm clocks for oh-dark-thirty to watch Price William and Kate tie the knot. The New York Times projected about 2.5 billion viewers around the world would tune in, and if this really were the case, American televisions sets turned to the wedding only account for less than one percent of this estimated amount. After months of hype, this is a little surprising to me, but also understandable. For months, it's been hard to flip the channel without hearing news of the wedding, it's been harder to see a magazine without the face of at least of half of the couple, and it's been harder still to go out and not hear someone discussing the event. Americans are worn out from constantly living through an event that's not even happening in their own country. Eleven different networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, TEL, UNI, BBCA, CNN, E!, FOX News, MSNBC, and TLC) covered the prestigious event, and together they "generated a combined household rating of 16.0," again according to The Wrap. According to CNN, its six hours of coverage (from 4 a.m. for 10 a.m.) took the biggest audience since the morning after the 2008 presidential election. Even though Prince William looked sharp and Kate Middleton looked gorgeous (as always), it just wasn't enough to bring the expected amount of viewer to their television sets.

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