Despite a 6am start time on Friday, the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton drew a king-size US audience.
The wedding coverage was carried live from about 6am to 7:15am on 11 networks and drew 22.8 million viewers and 18.6 million households.
That's a larger number of households than watched Prince Charles wed Lady Diana in 1981 (which drew 14.2 million households, with no viewership numbers available). By comparison, about the same number of people watched American Idol's performance show this week (22 million), and 28.9 million watched President Obama's inauguration.
The ceremony from Westminster Abbey was carried by ABC, CBS, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, BBCA, CNN, E!, FOXNC, MSNBC and TLC.
Across the pond, however, Charles and Diana still rule. Nearly 27 million viewers in the UK watched Kate trade vows with William on BBC, ITV or Sky News, compared to the 28.4 million who tuned in for the royal wedding 30 years ago. Friday's ceremony also ranked behind UK coverage of Princess Diana's 1997 funeral.
~Papi Chulo~
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