(Reuters) – More than 17 million Americans watched Oprah Winfrey’s television bombshell interview with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, according to preliminary data cited by Variety and the Hollywood Reporter on Monday.
The numbers are expected to rise when broadcaster CBS releases final official data later on Monday.
Sunday’s two-hour interview was the first given by the couple since they stepped back from the British royal family a year ago. Meghan spoke of feeling suicidal, and accused the royal family of racism, while Harry said his father, Prince Charles, had let him down.
While a ratings success for CBS, the preliminary 17.1 million audience was well below that of last year’s Oscars telecast at 23.6 million – one of the biggest celebrity events on U.S. television.
Meghan and Harry’s tell-all interview with Winfrey dominated the conversation on social media, morning television shows and newspaper front pages on Monday in Britain and abroad.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Howard Goller)
