A few days ago, we heard that several British broadcasters were “furiously vying” for the rights to Oprah’s interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The interview will air on CBS on March 7th, a Sunday evening in primetime. Because of the time difference, it’s unlikely that any British broadcaster would attempt to air the interview concurrently with the American airing, so everyone has settled on the idea that the interview will absolutely air in the UK on the evening of March 8th, which is (lol) Commonwealth Day. So how, perchance, are the British papers making this story sound like a slam on Meghan?
The BBC will not “pull out the chequebook” to obtain rights to the Meghan Markle exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey – despite the intentions of the Duchess of Sussex. Meghan is set to sit down with the US chat show host for her first interview since stepping down as a senior member of the Royal Family. Prince Harry is also expected to feature in the interview. The “tell-all” interview – titled Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special – will air on March 7 in the US.
But according to the Telegraph, Meghan wanted the 90-minute special to be broadcasted on the BBC. However, a source claimed the corporation was not involved in the fierce bid war for international rights. The source said: “We’re not going to pull out the chequebook for that.”
Instead of airing the “tell-all” interview, the BBC will broadcast a Commonwealth Day celebration. This special will feature messages from the Queen as well as Prince Charles, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, and Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge.
It is believed negotiations for international rights involved Sky and ITV. According to Variety, neither Netflix nor Amazon were not involved in the bidding, despite Meghan and Harry signing a multi-million dollar deal with Netflix. The publication claimed ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group – which sells the international rights – “was interested in having the interview put on a free-to-air channel”.
Of course Viacom is interested in selling the interview to free-to-air channels across the globe. The point of all of this was for the Sussexes to tell their story and get it out there, with as many people as possible watching. If I was about to rip some wiglets off a bunch of colonizers, I would go network all the way, no cable-subscription channels, no subscription-only streaming services.
As for Meghan “wanting” the program on the BBC specifically… I think that’s just a leap being made by nasty British people with an agenda. They were desperate for a way to criticize H&M, so they made up a version of this story where the BBC personally shut down Meghan. I don’t think the BBC would have ever tried to bid on it, especially because they are being forced to air the Queen’s Grumpy Commonwealth Lecture. Also: the Times reported that Harry and Meghan “have a say on who is allowed to broadcast the interview.” Which means that they probably preemptively vetoed the BBC anyway, and then the BBC got its panties in a bunch and said that they rejected Meghan first. Anyway, it’s looking more and more like ITV will air the interview. I’m sure it will be a ratings bonanza across the board.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Oh please. They will ALL be watching.
“despite the intentions of the Duchess of Sussex”? Their poison is always at the ready. Nevertheless, I can assure you the British will be the most avid watchers.
Yes, and I can state firmly that I have zero interest in what the BBC thinks about it.
They can go f themselves – I will be watching with great interest, and I normally watch very little tv.
Hahahahaha!! And again hahahahaha!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Oh the desperation (and bending over backwards…) They are irrelevant though 🤷♀️
Is there a single day on the British calendar on which something wouldn’t be overshadowed? Including the sacred buffer days around important days and announcements?
The “sacred buffer days”! Hahahahahaha
heh!!!
they cry wolf, but they keep on reporting on the “irrelevant” Sussexes, like all those haters are like secret fans, commenting, following, keeping tabs on their latest movements, just as jilted lovers.
the awful press, I understand they are milking what they can from them, so it is understandable that they create more hate and cater to them because of $.
It’s like they don’t have the trademark anymore, and creating knock-offs out of the cambridge’s or essexes is out of the question, so they just try to make money out of what they can, deriding them,
Every single initiative, holiday, celebration or successes that H&M ever have will always be on the same day of something related to the RF and they will feel entitled to squawk about it. If not, what else will they talk about?
This made me laugh so hard.
Try not to watch. Fools! Ahahaha
You didn’t reject us. We rejected You! -BBC
“Despite the intentions of the Duchess of Sussex”😒 Nasty
Please every one is going to be watching. The carnival of so call experts will be there taking notes, to later make all sorts of claims.
It’s being reported that ITV bought the rights for 1 million pounds and Variety reported that the BBC dropped out of the bidding war because as broadcaster of the Commonwealth day programme they didn’t think it would be appropriate to show the interview. In reality they didn’t want to upset the Queen. I agree with you, Kaiser about the story about Meghan wanting it on the BBC. She has no control over how CBS sell the rights to and I don’t think she cares where it’s shown, she’s more concerned about getting her side of the story out. Anyway clips will be shown on all the BBC news shows anyway.
Wasn’t their Africa documentary aired on ITV?
Yes, it was.
Yeah. M&H have no control over or voice in who CBS sells the rights to. Whoever is the highest network bidder gets the prize.
It’s so funny to me that they think Meghan would even be thinking about “where it will be aired.” That’s Oprah and Co.’s job. Meghan and Harry just accepted the interview.
They are both young enough to understand that w/e happens, this will end up on Youtube, on news pages around the world, on DVR’s, etc. It doesn’t matter if it is shown on the BBC. The Brits will likely be seeing this the day after anyways.
In fact, instead of watching the BBC, their viewers will be trying to find a way to watch the interview.
You just KNOW that snippets of the thing will end up on all the news shows, regardless of where it originally airs. And YouTube, and Vimeo, and Insta, etc., etc. And that’s without reckoning with all the people who will record it, then make videos and gifs for TikTok, Facebook, etc. This interview is going viral regardless of what the BBC says, or what counter-programming they produce.
I call BS. In reality they probably were nowhere near the winning bid, IMO.
From the Panorama Diana interview to the Prince Andrew pedo interview it’s clear they DGAF about the Queen.
They seem pressed….😉
Why on earth would Meghan want the BBC to air her interview when it was a BBC Radio host who posted that vile photo of Archie portrayed as a chimp?
Thank you so much for reminding me of this. Honestly atrocious and is not spoken about enough in response to their mistreatment by the British media.
I really hope that Oprah puts it front and center in her interview!
and, honestly if “Meghan wanted the 90-minute special to be broadcasted on the BBC” as the Telegraph claims, wouldn’t she have tried to set up an interview w/someone in the BBC?
They probably mad someone told them to not even dare air the interview after the queen’s….whatever it is that she’s doing, so they had to pull out of the running.
Like @harla above said, I hope the BBC’s bid was returned with a picture of a well-dressed chimpanzee.
LOL! Perfect!
Im seriously curious to see which countries will pick this interview up and stream it. Im not interested in who will stream it in Britain because nothing good comes of that island anyway. But other countries i want to know. Maybe south africa? Jamaica, other countries in europe like france or belgium? We will see
I don’t see it being bought in the Caribbean, most people with Cable can watch it for free on CBS, the same time it is on in America.
And too be honest I don’t think many people there, care one way or another for the Royal family.
“If I was about to rip some wiglets off a bunch of colonizers….”
HERE FOR THIS
Rip the wiglets off the piglets!!!
I doubt that they wanted BBC to air it. They always claim that BBC is impartial but it’s far from it. I hate that we have to pay tax to fund the BBC. Their presenters/newscasters aren’t impartial, most of them have hitched their wagon on to the royal family and spout toxicity against Harry and Meghan. I remember a few radio 1 dj’s on the day time programmes crowing, making fun of Harry and Meghan, when it was first announced that they would be stepping back from the brf, greg james (a radio 1 dj) made a segment about it, something along the lines of things you didn’t tell your gran or something like it. The tone was of them thinking Harry would fail and come crawling back. I stopped watching their show after that as it’s ironic that after months and years of telling people mental health matters and fundraising of it, they neglected to think about Harry and Meghan’s mental health or the other explanation is they didn’t care about H&M’s mental health.
People have always complained about the close relationship between the Royal Family and the BBC. The BBC does what the Royal Family tells them to do. I have no doubt that the Royal Family told the BBC to move the Commonwealth programme from Monday to Sunday to avoid clashing and being overshadowed by the Oprah interview.
I agree with you Amy Bee, which is why it really grates me that we have to pay tax to fund them. I think they change the rules so that people still need to pay the tv licence tax if you use iPlayer or watch online.
They are pro rf and run by tories/conservatives
If the BBC were to air it, they’d probably edit the crap out of it to make H&M look as bad as possible. It’s a damn good thing they’re not.
I would believe they had no interest in the Oprah interview if they would quit talking about it, quit using H/M to cover up their government’s shady dealings, their various politicians criminal activities and how awful Brixit has turned out to be. Suggestion, stop discussing the Sussexes and we will believe you don’t care and you are not using them for something or other.
Right?? For an interview that supposedly is going to be a snooze, they sure are worked up over it.
+1
I wonder, if these people could see a magical snapshot of how they look and sound, it would help them realize they are NOT major players on the world stage. Myself and several friends plan to travel once the pandemic is under control, but, to the last person…no one wants to step foot on Struggle Island.
@bamaborn – same. I read other comments saying the same thing and I agreed. I really don’t want to spend any time or money in England. I lived there and went to university there. But, while I had a few minor racist incidents, I can see it would be much worse. If I am treating myself, I’m traveling where that’s less likely – knowing nowhere is 100% okay. I do the same with states I’ll travel to, or not. The monarchy is not a draw at all – all of that can be viewed without a royal family in place, anyway.
I’m on the fence, frankly. I’ve traveled extensively in Latin America, and I’ve been to Germany, Spain, and France. But for some reason, I’ve never been to England, and I’ve long thought that it would be a good trip. I hope to see the Lake District someday, where Beatrix Potter lived and wrote the Peter Rabbit stories, and Haworth Parsonage, where the Bronte sisters wrote. Above all, I want to visit Westminster Abbey, where so many great English writers are memorialized. I’m interested in literary England, not Tory England or Cool Britannia or anything particularly modern. So I’m torn …
I moved to the UK about 8 years ago and love it here. People are generally lovely and there is so much to do and see in London and beyond. I have found it super welcoming. I am really sad about Brexit though. I think the Royal family are a huge draw to tourists especially from China and Japan. I work near Victoria and have to walk from Green Park (pre pandemic) to Victoria every day and there are always hundreds of people starting to gather at Buckingham Palace at 8-8:30am. Most people here don’t give a second thought to the Royal family tbh. The place I see them mention most is on this site, which seems to have turned into a royal watching site recently instead of a general celebrity gossip site.
That’s interesting, because it was the constant onslaught of tabloid sleaze that caused me to look for a news site that WASN’T caught up in crucifying Meghan for daring to be of mixed race and American. That’s why my opinion of the so-called royals deteriorated, and that’s how I found this place.
I don’t know why the British press keeps mentioning Netflix and Amazon. They don’t purchase interviews. I guess it’s to make it look like Netflix isn’t interested in them anymore.
They sure are upset at a woman who only lived there for about a year and a half, aren’t they?
Yes, I’m sure the BBC’s Commonwealth Day extravaganza will be a huge ratings success. Will pull many, many more viewers than H&M plus toddler Archie.
>>giggle<<
Having looked into the lengths the BBC went to protect Jimmy Savile during his life I’ve no intention of ever giving them ratings and I know many people of the same opinion. Funny that the BRF were also instrumental in keeping the ugly truth covered. The amount of vetting done by the men in grey and he STILL went on to receive a knighthood? Nah. They’re all in this together. The entire establishment is corrupt.
L84TEA, I just started reading the comments and yours 😁😂🤣😅😆🤩😏 even my cat 😹!
As a British person, I am so conflicted over the BBC, while it is important to have a public broadcaster, the BBC has just become a propaganda machine for the government and the establishment, so the fact that they don’t want this is of no surprise at all, given they were probably told not to.
Imagine believing that Meghan is wasting any energy thinking about the BBC lol