Duchess Kate’s ‘Together at Christmas’ special had pretty low viewership

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Attend Together At Christmas Community Carol Service

There’s some interesting data about the Windsors’ attempts – and perhaps their successes – in dominating Christmas programming in the UK. As it turns out, the Queen’s Christmas speech was watched by nearly 9 million people as it aired concurrently on BBC One, ITV and Sky News. The video of the speech also garnered millions of views on YouTube, probably because every news channel just posted the full thing because they could. Note: the Queen’s speech was covered by all of the major news channels in the UK, including the BBC. Prince William did not get his way – he threw a tantrum about the BBC’s The Princes and the Press and seemed to suggest that the Queen could somehow yank her Christmas speech from airing on the BBC.

Speaking of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s unhinged war with the BBC, they made a huge f–king deal about how they were yanking Kate’s caroling special away from the BBC and giving it to ITV. ITV threw it together in a matter of weeks and Kate, as we know, keened and preened at the piano and made Christmas all about her doll wiglet. Only 1.52 million households watched. Royal Carols: Together at Christmas didn’t even get into the top ten programs on Christmas Eve.

It really does seem like William and Kate threw a tantrum, half-assed the special and just assumed everyone would fall all over themselves to praise them. And… they weren’t really wrong in that calculation. The British papers fell all over themselves giving Kate credit. Only regular citizens of Salt Island aren’t really buying it.

Interestingly enough, Kensington Palace posted Kate’s piano recital to the Cambridges’ YouTube channel and it’s only the second video on their channel to break one million views. The only other Cambridge video to do that was their first one, where they announced that they were starting a channel. While Kate’s Big Keen Christmas Jazz Hands special wasn’t widely watched on TV, Kate used the special to add to her YouTube influencer cred. The posts about her piano recital also got a lot of likes on Instagram and Twitter, so there you go.

Royal Carols - Together At Christmas

Royal Carols - Together At Christmas

Photos courtesy of Instar, Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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208 Responses to “Duchess Kate’s ‘Together at Christmas’ special had pretty low viewership”

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  1. Iris says:

    I know there’s been a lot of commentary about Kate not playing live… but man, I don’t know. I don’t know if I would have had the nerve to play live either? No matter how much you practice, things can always go wrong – especially if you’re an amateur, not a professional. It would have been terrifying!

    • Dee (2) says:

      I mean she didn’t have to participate in this manner though. I say this as someone that went to a performing arts high school for instrumental performance. It is very nerve wracking to play in front of crowds, especially solo, but she didn’t have to do this. She could have given a speech, could have did a reading, introduced a group performance, really anything. She actively chose to perform with this person, and sought him out to do so, she doesn’t get a pass on being a afraid.

      • BothSidesNow says:

        Thank you @ Dee (2)!! The least she should have done was arrive early, before her guests, and make a speech!! Instead, she arrived very late, poor manners indeed, as she wanted the entire event to be about her! Plus, if it was in recognition of the NHS, why are they not seated in the front instead of her family? That’s the least she could have done, instead of sticking them in the back.

        All of those that this complete disaster was supposed to benefit were never seen or heard from. In addition to not a peep as to the charities that this supposed flop was to benefit from. Where are the details regarding those charities?

      • Anance says:

        The Kate-piano stunt was outrageous. The BRF purposely gave the impression she WAS there, playing along. Neither the quality of her performance nor the difficulty of the piece is remotely an issue. Add to this the dress-up involved, Kate approached intentional deception.

        If she simply played along, with some simple chords with another pianist, it would have been more than fine. No expected a virtuoso performance of a Casse-Noisette by Tchaikovsky. Simple and easy playing was all that was called for, as the quality played at home.

        Imagine if Meghan had done this.

    • Jan says:

      So 6 year olds have more courage, to play chopsticks in front of a crowd.
      Milli Vanilli did put on a show at the Commonwealth Service and she was in front of a crowd.
      The is similar to the Flyby stunt, an extra plane an extra piano.

    • lulu brown says:

      Maybe don’t beg to do it so you can upstage a certain somebody. That woman can’t do anything if it’s not spoon-fed to her.

    • Wiglet Watcher says:

      Iris
      If you took lessons from childhood into adulthood. If you volunteered to play piano in a prerecorded way with your regular team of editors. If you had weeks of prep with very good coaches and camera angles. Would you be afraid? Absolutely not.

      Everything is tipped to your favor. Kate in this situation is not the average person so everyone needs to stop making excuses for her.

      • Debbie says:

        @Wiglet Watcher: With some people, it’s just a pathological impulse to defend, deflect, and excuse Kate’s inadequacies at this point. It’s basically the same excuses they give for Kate not making more speeches. Honestly, it’s exhausting! She’s shy (like a 40 yr. old kid), she’s just had baby (years ago), she didn’t have time to practice (cuz she’s so busy “working”), and on and on. Now it’s she’s got stage fright. Then why in the hell volunteer to take the limelight? Sweet jumping Jesus!

    • Belli says:

      But if she wasn’t going to play live, it does raise the question of who she performed for. The concert was advertised as being a thank you for key workers, but she didn’t play to them because it was recorded in advance.

    • Lizzie says:

      Maybe if she hadn’t dressed up in the same clothes she wore to the live concert it wouldn’t seem so shady. They tried to pass off a recording as live.

      • myjobistoprincess says:

        +1 – It’s shady because of that!

      • North of Boston says:

        If she had changed outfits, they almost could have passed it off as a COVID precaution-y fluke “oh we filmed some numbers ahead of time to limit exposure for everyone.”

        But they purposely were trying to handwave over the fact this piece wasn’t performed live that night.

      • Merricat says:

        Second-rate Kate, such a joke.

      • Tara says:

        And her fans are ripping Robert Jobson apart for tweeting that the performance was pre-recorded. If this was Meghan, they would call her a fraud.

      • Randie says:

        Exactly, it was made to look live. She received 1+ million…..yet Harry, Meghan, and Oprah received 17.1 million. Ha!

      • Jais says:

        Ok I’m intrigued now @tara. Was Robert Jobson the first to tweet that it was pre-recorded or are fans just going off in general. Like if he hadn’t tweeted that would people really just be thinking it’s live? Assuming the artist would have also talked about the recording in interviews so why go off on Jobson. Not to say there aren’t other reasons to go off on him but for just stating it was pre-recorded? LOL. Did Kate’s team really think so many people would pretend it happened live so that’s why she wore the same dress?

      • BothSidesNow says:

        @ Merricat, always spot on with your words of wisdom and putting the truth out there!!

    • Nic919 says:

      And yet she purposely wore the same outfit to film the taping that she wore at the service which is intentionally deceitful. This woman has never worn the same thing two days in a row so if she was at least honest in not doing it live it would have been understandable. But she wanted to people to think she was doing this live and get the praise for it by the media.

      • Chic says:

        It the deceit that causes everything to get dragged out with two. Had it been prerecorded in another outfit, SM would move on. It’s like the Meghan made me cry story..

    • Royalwatcher says:

      But it wasn’t actually live though, was it? It was pre-recorded, with no audience, with an actual professional piano player in the background playing over her, and she had multiple takes. So there really was nothing live about it. I don’t see how it would have been stressful at all.

    • Kalana says:

      No one forced Kate to do it. She did it as a publicity stunt to promote herself, not the cause.

      If only she put that much effort into actually helping her charities instead of disappearing for 8 years.

      And the KP instagram shows that Kate is clearly thrilled with it.

    • notasugarhere says:

      Kate chose to force the Westminster choir and Abbey to do this PR debacle, maskless, in the middle of a pandemic. She chose to make it all about herself and her pathetic two chords on the piano in her DianaCosplay. No sympathy from me at all.

    • Demi says:

      There are children in the choir who performed live

    • WithTheAmerican says:

      Yes, but as a royal her job is to be public. She also didn’t need to OFFER to do this.

      It is literally her JOB for which she is supported 100% in jewels, clothes, houses and jets. She is not an amateur at being a public figure. She is a professional, who can’t even manage to read two lines live for a Christmas concert.

    • Mrs.Krabapple says:

      I love how the Duchess didn’t perform to a usual Christmas song but to a song that’s so meaningful. So blown away.

      • KSK Pamuk says:

        im blown a way too, she literally didnt perform anything but bouncing her hand up and down over two chords. Its ridicoulous that this was even considered any kind of anything other than a staged desperate cry for ” look at me I am katie keen the future qween of salty isle.” I was glad to see trained musicians cut this mess to shreds with their reviews on Twitter of keens display of foolishness.

    • swirlmamad says:

      If you take piano lessons from childhood, as I and many others here have, you participate in recitals every year and if she were such a musical aficionado as they are claiming she is, it shouldn’t be any old thing for her to play what she did live. She should be used to performing — she gets no credit from me on this. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. She asked for this so she could attempt to upstage Meghan, and then when it didn’t fully go her way, tries to hide behind that fake-ass shy and demure persona.

    • PrincessK says:

      The main point is that it was deception. When watching the ITV programme it was made to look like Kate got up and played the piano, whenever nothing like that actually happened.
      I actually enjoyed the piano playing and the song and it would have been fine if we had been told it was prerecorded or she had worn different clothes but it was made to look like she did it live.
      I was fooled by it.

    • dc says:

      Just a big picture observation: it seems that Kate is always obliged/pressured to save William from his mistakes & tantrums? Why couldn’t William himself step up & organize the Xmas Service or whatever it’s called? Why is Kate put in the frame to be criticized? Is it because William is so truly inept, he can’t be permitted to front an event of this kind as he’ll bound to cock it up?!

    • Denise says:

      I don’t care that it’s prerecorded, I do think it’s deceiving to make it SEEM like she played it live. If it was just how the media is reporting it that would be one thing but she’s wearing the same outfit both days so you know there’s going to be confusion.

  2. Jegede says:

    The show was promoted on every other ITV advert.😏
    The BRF social media page shilled it hard.😏
    Numerous TV spots built anticipation for the future Queen playing piano…….😏

    And it got beaten by a Repair Shop programme on BBC!! 😳
    Repair Shop!??! Not even Eastenders!🤣🤣

    If this had been Meghan, it would have been front page news.

    • Circe says:

      Ummmm I said this in yesterday’s thread but it bears repeating — Repair Shop is an awesome show! It’s so wholesome and good hearted and full of talented artisans! It’s like if British Baking Show and antiques Roadshow had a beautiful beloved child.

      You’re right tho that id still switch over for Meghan!

      • VoominVava says:

        The Repair Shop is awesome! Love it 🙂

      • Jegede says:

        Y’all are missing my point.
        It has now to do with how good/bad Repair show is.

        I can get Kate losing out to Eastenders, cause it’s a British cultural touchstone (alongside Coronation Street).
        Soaps tend to rank alongside football for solid viewership in Blighty.

        However Kate WASN’T up against those behemoth TV shows, yet got easily trounced at almost 5 times the level.!!
        Poor returns for the ‘saviour of the monarchy’.😏😏

    • North of Boston says:

      I love love love Repair Shop!

      • Jay says:

        Me too! It’s so calm, one of the few series that has brought me comfort (and some cathartic sobs, it must be said) throughout the pandemic.

      • Jais says:

        Alright y’all just had me googling repair shop! Before I looked it up though, it got me thinking about NPR’s Car Talk, which I used to listen to every Saturday morning despite living in bklyn and not even owning a car.

  3. LW says:

    Of course it did, her ‘fans’ were busy googling Meghan instead.

    *cackles*

  4. Mslove says:

    Why do they care about network tv? That’s old fashioned. They should be concentrating on social media and such.

    • Amy Bee says:

      @Mslove: Because that’s where the Royal Family’s base is.

      • Eurydice says:

        Well, if they got a million views on YouTube, then maybe the fan base is shifting.

      • JT says:

        If they can get a million views on YouTube, than where was Kate’s presence online? She should have been trending for this performance and it should’ve been all over social media. It was not. The only people hyping this were the BM and, even still, it wasn’t a top story online over there.

      • Lizzie says:

        Also they cannot buy ratings but I think views can be bought.

      • Sid says:

        Eurydice, they bought those views, which is easy to do on YouTube.

      • North of Boston says:

        There may have been some people watching on YouTube trying to see for themselves whether Kate was really playing, how one plays the piano in spike heels with ones legs crossed, do the wiglets show in a 360 sustained view, etc. Or that it’s a pretty song, pianist aside.

      • Nyro says:

        Nope. You can’t but tv ratings.

    • lulu brown says:

      They know their social media is not an accurate depiction of what the public thinks, especially when you’re buying bots, likes, and views. You can’t buy television views.

      • Eurydice says:

        I guess my question would be – does it matter if they’re buying bots and likes and views? Isn’t that the same as the “invisible contract” with the BM? It’s all planted. If the Cambridges really cared what the public thinks, they wouldn’t be so half-assed in everything they do. And if the public really cared, they would demand more. But it doesn’t seem to me that the RF has any real effect on people’s lives, except as some mild entertainment – the idea of the RF ruling anything is a fiction, so why not their social media numbers, too?

    • Demi says:

      The lamebridges probably bought views on YT but still, I think most people were just curious to see if she’s actually good at playing piano.. the same people aren’t interested in watching the whole concert let’s be real which proves that they cannot sustain genuine interest

  5. Amy Bee says:

    The fact that none of the Royal rota talked about the ratings means that the concert was a flop. But I think Kate’s satisfied with the end result which was she got the attention from the press that she wanted.

    • JT says:

      She got some attention for a hot minute and then people moved on, but I don’t think they are satisfied because it was supposed to be a huge moment. Only the BM cared about it and that was only so they could bring up Meghan. They were asking people to live tweet the concert and use hashtags for goodness sakes. They wanted this to go viral and it didn’t. Outside of the BM, nobody was praising this. In contrast, the Sussexes dominated Christmas headlines worldwide with their holiday card and Meg has been trending for 5 days straight because she won over the Mail. Her victory has been reported on in many countries. Kate wasn’t even trending for a day over her groundbreaking performance and it wasn’t a main story in the news, not even in the UK.

      • vs says:

        They wanted Kate to be vanilla so people could project whatever onto her….well she is and people just don’t care enough. Her “fans” are mostly Meghan’s haters….that should concern the rf much more than anything else. The Cambridges do not have a set of people who just like them! No one can praise Kate without bringing Meghan’s name. If i were KP, I would worry…..do you see people praising Meghan even acknowledge Kate? look at the caliber of people praising Meghan vs Kate. If Kate bad been a nicer person, maybe some could have had some empathy! she does not care much about the public well apparently the feeling is mutual …. LOL

        I don’t live in the UK so I certainly wasn’t the target audience here…..if CB hadn’t written about it or some #Sussexsquad talked about it on twitter, I would have know this was happening….sorry for the charities which were supposed to be promoted!

      • Jennifer says:

        I think being “vanilla” is a good strategy for surviving within the royal family, especially if you married in.

        But yeah, that doesn’t necessarily mean that people super care about you either. Oh well.

    • Nyro says:

      Honestly, she didn’t even get that much attention from this stunt. The British media gave the run up to Meghan’s Ellen appearance. The run up alone. They wrote more opinion pieces and did more tv segments in mere anticipation of what Meghan would say. There really hasn’t been much media commentary at all about Kate’s Mili Vanilla kindergarten recital.

      • JT says:

        @Nyro Exactly. Meg’s Ellen interview was breaking news in the UK. They freaking live blogged her interview and interrupted their programming to air it. Kate’s stunt, by comparison, went nowhere.

      • Nyro says:

        Yep. The trailer alone for Meghan’s Ellen appearance blanketed the media over there. Kate’s coverage has been a drop in a bucket in comparison. Where are the five or six opinion pieces in the Telegraph? Where are the pianists being interviewed to rate her playing? Where are the two dozen DM articles? Where are the ten minute segments devoted entirely to her on their morning shows? Where’s the coverage on their supposedly serious evening news programs? Nowhere. The only people hyping this stunt are online royalists, so.e with blue checks. And 90 percent of their “praise” features Meghan’s name. Lots of “Take that Meghan!!”, ” Top that, Me-Gain!!” or “I love our classy success…unlike Meghan!”. That’s why Meghan was a bigger trending topic than Mumbles following the stunt.

  6. Becks1 says:

    I feel like if they had promoted the piano playing for longer, rather than Kate’s sweater and decorating, it might have gotten more viewers. They took the part that might have gotten people to tune in and didn’t promote it until right before, and then put it up almost immediately on their YouTube channel….so why would someone even need to DVR it if they wanted to watch it?

    • Jay says:

      Yeah, I think most tv channels would have wanted to promo the hell out of the duchess playing piano (“live”), so my guess would be that Kate wasn’t sure she wanted to include it or required it to be edited a certain way before she signed off.

    • STRIPE says:

      100% agree – they buried the lead. Maybe they thought more people would watch regardless, but the anticipated numbers weren’t good leading up to it so they decided to reveal the big surprise last minute?

    • LaraW” says:

      I think the wiglet-sweater and tying bows on a large conifer in an empty church was supposed to be some kind of build up to the main event? I mean, any other person who has a competent PR team and actually listened to said team (and put in the work) would’ve been able to pull it off. Imagine if, instead of Kate, it had been Lady Gaga doing the concert and promotions. People would’ve been hooked and tuned in to watch.

      But Gaga probably wouldn’t have released photos of a grand entrance to attend the pre-recording. I think that was KP’s biggest mistake. They should’ve kept the whole thing on down low, then release after the broadcast those photos of “here is Kate in a dress contemplating the chairness of a chair.” They should have released the card thing DURING the program, intersperse the songs with poignant human interest stories (like, how cool would it have been to contact some of the Stand Still winners to submit another photo to sum up their year).

      Then to feed the BM, give them the “intimate and exclusive” close up photos of all the Midds sitting like they’re waiting to be called to the next window at the DMV. And the piece de resistance: the (festering) festive looks William was giving Kate.

    • Scout says:

      They waited so long to promote it because they needed to have the performance totally complete (filmed, edited etc..) before they would even hint to the public that Kate might be playing the piano.

      And they only filmed the performance the day before the carols event to keep it as quiet as possible in case things didn’t work out.

    • Margaret says:

      Or maybe on closer look the fact that there was another professional pianist playing over her weak hand display. Pre recorded why?
      No props to the real pianist?. How very lamebridge can you go.
      The reason I can never give them cudos, when facts are known they stink.

      • WithTheAmerican says:

        This. It’s like the ballet dancer who finally spoke up after Natalie Portman was taking so much credit for the Black Swan dancing.

        It happens all of the time (these actors pretending they do their own stunts EYEROLL) but is still such an affront. Stealing someone else’s work, no credit for their work, and then selling the false idea that it’s so easy to play the piano/dance/kickboxing/ whatever that someone can do it as a hobby and be pro level.

    • MissMarirose says:

      They did kinda flub the PR on that, I agree. They released a 4 second teaser of her sitting down at a piano a day before it aired. They showed that on the ITV morning program and the woman anchor (I can’t remember her name) mentioned that she was there for the taping of the service, but was surprised to see that teaser because she said she never saw Kate at a piano during that performance.
      It seemed like low key shade from that woman because, as a TV presenter, she had to know that some parts of the program would be prerecorded.

    • Harper says:

      The Times online edition had a large, above-the-fold, many column-inches photo of Kate’s back sitting at the piano. This photo was prominently displayed all day and was essentially free editorial promotion for a television special. No other program airing that night received the same free publicity.

      I think Kate and Co. held back the news of her performance in order to knock the Sussex Christmas card off the front pages. Everyone knew the Sussexes usually wait until the 23rd for their card, and everything Will & Kate do is to gain imaginary wins against Harry & Meghan.

    • Anance says:

      If Kate’s piano playing had been promoted, the fact she did not do so at the concert would have come out BEFORE the program. Her piano recital had to be a surprise so people would remember it and not what came out later.

      Probably not even the actual participants of the concert knew in advance that Kate would be edited in.

  7. Moderatelywealthy says:

    Interesting enough, since the Cambridges and their ” traditional” family vibe mostly appeal to older, whiter folks, you would expect them to tune in for a very straight forward and televised Christmas special, which is not what happened.

    BBC, however, saw a dud and said ” no, thanks.” I have no idea what the audience of ITV looks like, but it seems they did not even split viewership.

    As for Instagram and Youtube, this is where things get complicated. Youtube has a buble of alt righters that flock for anything that is not ” woke” , that is “traditional” as in white and straight, and a Christmas special fits the bill. Especially when a video on youtube is 3 minutes long instead of an hour long special, I can see getting traction.

    ( the comments on the video btw are pure PR Middleton talking points)

    Instagram and Twitter, we all know they buy followers, so I would not find their numbers there so telling.

    Anyway, what matters to Kate is not the TV viewership. What matters are the fawning articles on RR and the good numbers on ” younger media”- nevermind they are coming from the worst segment of society or are being paid.

    • JuliaP says:

      Also the video was tweeted out extensively by various outlets after it aired so many people clicked on it out of curiosity. They couldn’t be bothered to watch the actual concert though. So the whole thing ended up being about Kate and her piano playing rather than honouring the NHS workers etc…

    • JuliaP says:

      Also the video was tweeted out extensively by various outlets after it aired so many people clicked on it out of curiosity. They couldn’t be bothered to watch the actual concert though. So the whole thing ended up being about Kate and her piano playing rather than honouring the NHS workers etc…

    • apollocat says:

      No, it proves that Cambridge fans are outside of the UK which is irrelevant to UK. This is alarming because if they cant pull people into this during a pandemic where everyone is stuck and most people didn’t bother to watch it. As for youtube, its international and many people watch it, and outside of uk fans won’t be matter because they won’t pay taxes. Those comments are bots.

    • Jan90067 says:

      As @ChristopherBouzy has shown us on Twitter, tracking down the Meghan Hate accounts across SM platforms, YouTube is right up there with bought viewer numbers. You can rest assured that The Cambs have purchased a good portion of their YouTube “subscribers” to go along with the Twitter and InstaBots they’ve bought.

      • Moderatelywealthy says:

        It is more difficult to buy on Youtube, not impossible.

        As i noted, the comments on Youtube are very Middleton like ” you never pleaced a foot wrong, Dear Kate” ” You are so selfless, doing this for us”

      • lulu brown says:

        All their social media numbers are fake. How the hell do you get over 11 million views on Instagram, but, your subscriber count stays the same? On Youtube, it’s the same story because those are not real numbers. One other thing in all fairness YouTube did have Fake it Katie’s recital on their trending page.

    • Eurydice says:

      Older, whiter folks can get bored, too.

    • Dutch says:

      A million views seems low for people who believe they are popular and beloved the way that branch of the BRF believes. I mean c-list celebs eating chicken wings draws 3-5 mill views on the regular.

      • BothSidesNow says:

        They do, don’t they! I mean, chicken girl here could get more than 5 million if she ate chicken wings in her nightie!!!🤣🤣

    • Kalana says:

      Interest in Kate is as a still image. Kate can’t hold someone’s attention when she’s doing something, only when she’s a still image so people can see the outfit and the hair and her expression and then lose interest in 5 minutes.

      Watching a concert or Kate saying something is boring. It’s been 10 years. Everyone knows Kate utterly lacks charisma when she talks and it’s going to be boring.

  8. Linney says:

    On the one hand, I think the piano playing was a nice idea. (Of course, I was distracted by her ridiculous hair.) But we all know if Meghan had done this, she would have been slammed for making it “all about her.” As I have said before, one of the biggest threats to any monarchy is indifference. The Duke and Duchess of “No One Could Care Less” inspire tremendous indifference. I guess that is an achievement!

    • Andrew's Nemesis says:

      I saw earlier that Buttoned Mutton was described as a ‘descent into beige’. Ne’er truer or more damning words said!

  9. Tessa says:

    Kate was cushioned and protected so she would not make ‘mistakes’ and they could be edited out. And of course the comment by her stans were over the top.

  10. Likeyoucare says:

    You can buy youtube viewers online.
    The cambridges already bought instagram followers, buying viewers for youtube is not a stretch.

  11. Shawna says:

    In a certain way, it doesn’t matter if it had a high viewership, as long as Kate got some good PR. If she kept doing more of these things, the general public would passively build up a better idea of her, and people like us would no longer bother picking apart every single thing she does…. there would be too much to keep up with. So my question is whether Kate could start following a different PR strategy than copying Meghan or chasing ratings and then maybe start seeming too valuable to the RF to divorce. Of course, there I go baselessly giving her credit for doing more than wiglet shopping and button polishing….

    • Commonwealthy sounded witty at first says:

      Great point shawna. If she could consistently do basic-but-easy-to-hype things, perhaps monthly, she could build up enough good (not great) PR to drown us out and maybe even gain some real fans (as opposed to Meghan haters). Problem is, she wants the one or two basic things a YEAR, or the overly ambitious and not credible at all things like her Early Years “work,” to give her GREAT PR while she chills out the rest of the time. It comes down to: if she weren’t so lazy, we wouldn’t knock her for being so lazy. If she stopped being lazy, we wouldn’t knock her for being lazy.

    • notasugarhere says:

      She needs to get her ass to work doing 500 engagements a year minimum. Not these silly big projects that they hype, are useless, and fail every time. She needs to stick to bread and butter, mindless chatter where the racist Little Englanders don’t care she is an airhead.

      • vs says:

        Exactly She does not have the drive to do big initiatives anyway….so why not focus on the simple stuffs?

      • Sid says:

        Just one engagement, 5 days a week, would have her in the hundreds. Just ONE. And these engagements rarely last more than an hour. Yet she won’t even do that. I don’t understand how anyone in her position can be that lazy and not feel any embarassment.

      • notasugarhere says:

        Many of her engagements clock in at 15 minutes. She could easily do 3-5 engagements a day as other royals do, and only work a few days a week.

      • BeanieBean says:

        Yeah, but then her staff would have to get to work making all the arrangements. I don’t think they want to, they know when they’ve got a cushy job.

      • BothSidesNow says:

        @ Sid, I agree!! Mumbles McMutton won’t even do ONE engagement a week, FFS, but she wants to put these useless puff arrangements together and expects people to praise her? For WHAT? When her in-laws out perform her year after year!!! Princess Anne runs circles around Keen and she can’t even perform the very basic.

        Plus, who were the charities that they were supposed to be supported through this disaster? Why do we never hear of those specific charities? Is it bcz the Bitter Brother has sticky fingers, as we know he does since he tried to steal from Meghans!?!???

  12. Jane says:

    There were at least two carol concerts on tv on Christmas Day – Carols from Kings, which is on every year, and a service broadcast from Coventry Cathedral. I imagine most people who wanted to watch a carol concert or Christmas service watched those. Christmas Eve is when people are dashing around doing last minute shopping or going to stay with family members or kids are monopolising the tv, so not the best time for big viewing figures.

  13. Loretta says:

    LMAO! They keep to flop

  14. Eurydice says:

    Of course, the Queen got high viewership, she’s been doing this for 70 years – it’s a Christmas tradition and it’s only 10 minutes long.

    I don’t think Kate or Will care about viewership, just as they don’t care if whatever else they do is successful or has impact. She did some “work”, she got some press and now it’s time for another holiday.

    • Jais says:

      This is where I’m at now too Eurydice. I mean I do think they care about viewership bc they’d love to have a real hit and stick it their montecito rivals. But overall, they get paid for doing bare minimum, going on vacays and enjoying a lux lifestyle. If they did more then people would expect more and they will never want that.

      • Eurydice says:

        Sure, they’d love to have a real hit – just like I’d love to win the Nobel prize for literature, but that would mean writing a book first and I like naps and cookies more. W&K already get much more publicity than is warranted for the amount of work they do – I think they’re fine with that equation.

      • JT says:

        So now the Keens don’t care about viewership? Now those things don’t matter to them? Is this the new talking point? They absolutely care about those things and had this concert been a hit, they would have been screaming it from the rooftops. This was a moderate success but by no means is this the smash that they wanted it to be. You don’t ask people to live tweet your concert if you don’t care about views and headlines. If they were just fine with the minimal about of press that they do get, they wouldn’t be trying to take back America, nor would they constantly brief the press. They absolutely care about being seen as successful and impactful. They literally hyped Keenshot as the most prestigious prize ever, despite not being awarded yet. They called the Early Years mess groundbreaking. Come on now. They get publicity but they want worldwide coverage. They aren’t fine with where they are now, because if they were they wouldn’t be trying to compete with H&M.

      • notasugarhere says:

        If they didn’t care about viewership, this ridiculous stolen concert wouldn’t have happened much less been on tv. The EarthSh!t debacle wouldn’t have been on tv and going to NYC next year. His flop series on BBC wouldn’t have been forced on BBC, then moved to late night because no one watched the first episode.

        W&K absolutely care about viewership numbers.

      • Eurydice says:

        @JT – Yikes, who said anything about talking points? This is just my opinion. And my opinion is that when you actually care about something, not just dream about it, you actually do it and do it properly. It’s not enough to say you want something or to declare it the best thing ever – you have to do the work. I don’t know what’s going on in their heads, but I do see how little effort they put into things compared with the other royals. W&K just don’t want to work and when one of their efforts turns to failure, they don’t want to fix it; they just move on. They’re not charismatic, but they’re also not incapable – they could make Early Whatsits and EarthWhozits impactful, but they don’t. Accolades come after the job is done, not before. They might grumble about the ratings and be jealous of H&M, but not in a way that makes them change. Maybe it’s the safety net of being FFK and FFQ, they won’t ever have to change as long as there’s a guaranteed prize.

      • aftershocks says:

        Note: In my previous post above, I was referencing a comment by @Jais at the top of this section.

        @Eurydice said:
        “They’re not charismatic, but they’re also not incapable – they could make Early Whatsits and EarthWhozits impactful…”

        ^^ While I agree with most of your post, the above comment I don’t think is exactly the case. W&K’s motivations for these two projects are not genuine nor authentic to begin with, so there’s no chance for either of them to make these projects impactful. They are too used to piggybacking on the ideas of others and getting most of the credit, or getting the shine reflected mostly on them. Meanwhile, they don’t really want to do any work. Moreover, they don’t have an original thought nor a creative idea between them. They allow their staffs to do the brainstorming, and the writing, and the preparation, and the mostly everything. That makes for two lazy Lamebridges.

        At the same time, W&K rely on the media to embiggen them and put them on a pedestal. But this has mainly been the case since Meghan came on the royal scene — the rota used to slightly criticize W&K for being ‘work-shy.’ But we never hear that critique anymore. The BM now focuses on trying to mess with Meghan, which benefits both Cambridges who are jealous of Meg’s abilities. Plus, Will has been jealous of Harry since they were kids. Now, had Diana lived, there may have been a chance that she could have run interference with Will and tried to help him become a better person. But that’s a ‘What if.’ Sadly, Will was completely taken over by self-interested courtiers at the age of 15, after his mother died.

        Kate, OTOH, is hopeless after having been solely raised to ‘marry up.’ That has been her and her mother’s main focus — for her sister Pippa too. So Kate was not taught the importance of hard work and of truly caring about the needs of people who have less. Thus, by now, I think it’s too late for W&K to change their stripes.

        Ironically, if W&K had been the couple who left the firm, they would actually be the ones going broke and crawling back, simply because aside from their royal status, they have nothing to offer. They are too used to believing they are better than everybody else and being waited on hand and foot. At the same time, they are petty, insecure, mean-spirited, and they’ve never learned how to master anything truly beneficial or productive.

    • Nyro says:

      The show flopped spectacularly so now it’s “they don’t care about ratings.” Please. This concert was hyped up beyond belief by KP and it was supposed to show their strength as a media draw, flexing their muscle and putting the BBC in its place.

    • JT says:

      @Eurydice I’ve been seeing many people say that W&K don’t care about viewership, which is why I asked if this was a new talking point. W&K do care about those things and that’s been clear for the past few years. They do put effort in trying be apart of the cultural landscape and their lack of effort into achieving that doesn’t mean that they don’t care. Being the FFKQC obviously isn’t enough for them, otherwise they wouldn’t be working so hard to destroy H&M or trying to prove that they are better. They would put their heads down do the bread and butters and call it day because, as you’ve said, nothing else matters. The job is theirs, and yet they are chasing after an “irrelevant couple” trying to convince people that they too are on the same level. That’s caring very deeply and I just don’t believe that the moderate success of this concert was good enough for them.

      • Eurydice says:

        I think we’re looking at “care” from two different angles. I have a friend who is a talented artist. He’s always complaining that others are doing better than he is – they’re getting the press and the gallery shows and the sales, etc. But he won’t get off his ass to finish his work, or to promote himself, or to meet gallery owners. Or, when he’s part of a show, he won’t write an artist’s statement or bother checking where and how his work is displayed, or show up for the opening. He knows that other artists do this, but he doesn’t want to. So yeah, he “cares” but he don’t want to acknowledge the steps people take to get that success that he “cares” about. In his case, it’s fear of failure along with deep laziness, but I don’t know if W&K fear failure – maybe Kate does.

      • Jais says:

        So I think they care in terms of their ego and the competition they have set up with the other couple. Just had a vision of William and Kate calling Harry and Meghan The Other Couple Who Shall Not be Named. Like some families don’t talk about politics and religions as a rule, the royal family now doesn’t talk about the sussexes at the table, otherwise they’d get too upset and worked up.

        But other than their pettiness, how much do they care? It’s embarrassing sure but they’re propped up by tax payer money and a sycophantic press. They don’t need high ratings in the way common plebs do; they’re still getting their money, riding in helicopters, and wearing stolen jewels. There’s a bigger conversation over whether low ratings over time will lead to a rise in republic sentiment and abolishment of the monarchy. Which yeah, yes please, let’s end this racist eugenic bullshit.

        But for Will and Kate, do they care enough to work harder and do more engagements because of these low ratings. No, I don’t think they care that much. Which absolutely is peak privilege and entitlement. Maybe it is their new talking point, which just highlights their privileged entitlement but also I don’t think they care that much. Like yeah they care bc it’s f*cking embarrassing to be old and mediocre, especially in comparison to the other couple who shall not be named, but they don’t care that much because they don’t need high ratings to put food on the table next week. So the don’t really care, apart from ego…As yet…when the tabloids really start going in and the gloves are off…they will care more. Right now, they do not care enough to work more. They don’t want to work harder and get the public used to that status quo bc then they’d have to keep it up. The horror.

    • Anance says:

      Plus everyone wanted to see how healthy she looked.

  15. Jay says:

    Seriously: they could have released this song as a charity single at the beginning of December, counting on public goodwill towards the queen to get them to the top of the charts. That would have been good promotion for the special as well as a potential opportunity for the rota to drone on about Kate’s “star power”. C’mon, a UK number one? She could have been smug about that for years, and people might overlook her dismal work numbers because she was focused on her music project.

    I looked it up yesterday after my post to refresh my memory, and in the past couple decades the UK number one has been by a children’s choir, military wives, NHS workers, band-aid charity singles, bob the builder, Mr blobby and more recently a novelty hit about sausage rolls set to the tune of “We built this city”. So the musical standard is…not high.

    People don’t buy these things for the musical quality per say, is what I’m saying, they are supporting a cause.

    • Lizzie says:

      Jay, all excellent points. More points to this being throw together last minute without planning. Also, a single would have to credit all musicians? Including additional pianists?

    • Scout says:

      Formally releasing it as a piece of professional music might require credit for editing, a second piano player, coaching, etc….

      And the release would be huge…..so folks who helped behind the scenes would want this on their resume also, so all of the behind the scenes details will come out.

      I don’t think that level of scrutiny is in the RF best interest.

      • Nic919 says:

        I agree this is why it wasn’t done. We would have seen just how little she contributed to this recording and it could not be hidden.

      • Amy Too says:

        And the fact that she recorded it literally the day before the concert. And that she didn’t even know she’s be doing a concert until the beginning of December. This wasn’t even an idea in her head until mid December. She’d actually have to care about things enough to 1) think about them ahead of time and 2) do the work ahead of time to make any kind of impact like releasing the #1 charitable Christmas single.

      • Jay says:

        I mean, WE certainly would have been scathing, but I don’t think the audience Kate is appealing to would. After all, she is widely credited with the success of “Hold Still” even though she just wrote ( “wrote”) a forward.

        They are so desperate to reward this woman that her actual performance would not matter. Hell, they could have just had her say “Happy Christmas” and ring some bells at the beginning of the recording and added her name to the song as a feature artist. The rules are different for the UK Christmas single, and everybody knows the drill, or at least that’s my sense as an outsider.

        Maybe some actual Brits should weigh in, are y’all really listening to “ladbaby”???

      • Jay says:

        @Amy Too, ah, yes, that is a noteworthy flaw in the plan!

    • Deering24 says:

      Hey, she’s reactive/none too smart—and hates Meghan because the latter is neither by a long shot.

  16. Sofia says:

    Honestly Kate was never going to get numbers like Strictly does but she got some headlines, made front pages and had her performance watched more than a million times across social media. So it’s probably a success in KP’s book. I said it yesterday but I thought the piano playing was nice. But she’s not the next Beethoven, she doesn’t have to be and that’s fine.

    • mariahlee says:

      It’s really hard for some to accept that Kate wins sometimes. It’s okay. A win for her doesn’t mean that Meghan loses. That’s how I reconcile my bitterness at least lol

      • Sofia says:

        I know I criticise Kate a lot here but I’m more than happy to say when she has done something okay/well. That doesn’t mean I don’t like Meghan or I’m suddenly on Team Cambridge. It’s just me admitting that she has done this one thing right. I’m normally criticising her again on another post on the same day lol.

      • notasugarhere says:

        She didn’t do anything right here. She bullied Westminster to let her steal their existing Christmas programme, she made herself the centre of attention, and she pre-recorded her two chord ‘playing’ in the same outfit to lie about it being live. This is simply a less offensive version of her Sarah E PR debacle.

      • swirlmamad says:

        How is she “winning”? She literally FAKED a live performance and purposely misled people to think she played live.

    • notasugarhere says:

      ‘watched’? Bought views, bought by taxpayer funds. This wasn’t a win for Kate, it was an embarrassment for all involved.

      • JT says:

        The only people that won for this was the BBC who didn’t have to air this mess. They didn’t lose viewership like they did for Keenshot, they got to say f*ck you to Will-di Amin over his little boycott, and they still got to air the queen’s Christmas message which garnered 10 million views.

      • notasugarhere says:

        But their staff still had to do the production. Who paid them, the Duchy? Or did the BBC have to pay for this last-minute silliness out of their existing budget.

      • lulu brown says:

        But what did she win? Professional pianists were making fun of her on social media. She didn’t trend like they were hoping, she did all this for Meghan to trend five days in a row. Meghan trended in different countries. So once again, what did Kate win? Social Media was making fun of this fake pre-recorded recital calling her Milli Vanilli.

    • Lizzie says:

      But we have to call them like we see them. It was a low ratings flop and they did try to pass off a recording as live.

    • Tessa says:

      Kate had years to improve. She never took speech lessons, she has not upped her work numbers. This stunt at the piano was not all that and hardly an achievement. I think she just likes being center of attention and always has.

    • Bren says:

      If Kate didn’t become a spectacular stunt queen over the last three years, the response would be different. She only decided it was time to do stuff when Meghan entered the picture. Honestly, the fact that Kate’s out here trying to set herself apart from the other duchess is hilarious to me. I bet she’s miserable and exhausted in the process. She hasn’t had to put this much effort over a stretch of time since before her engagement. It didn’t have to be this way but jealousy is a bitch and this is her price for not treating Meghan better.

  17. Over it says:

    Somewhere Alicia keys is saying, I don’t charge enough for my performances. Lol.
    But let me add I can’t play the piano so I probably should shut up about what Kate did.

  18. Lizzie says:

    Aside from the prerecorded piano recital, I wonder how much of the concert featured the ‘lady in red’? Was the focus mostly on Kate(as it appears).

  19. Lady Digby says:

    Óne is just relieved that the Duchess didn’t play piano while Prince Andrew sang Thank Heavens for Little Girls!

  20. Jais says:

    Someone mentioned this yesterday but who pays for this production? ITV? No way the Cambridges put any money into it.

  21. Fifee says:

    The fact that University Challenge had nearly the same viewership on a secondary channel says it all. Would rather challenge my brain by watching some uni students answer a bunch of unanswerable (to me) questions than a pair of dullards (Kate & Bill) singing songs.

  22. Busyann says:

    Sorry, what she did was great for her but no big whoop in my opinion. I played the violin for years and when you’re performing in front of an audience you just sort of forget that they are there? The music and your fingers and not effing up the next stanza sort of takes over so you really don’t have the time to worry and be afraid. Also, I tried for years to play the piano but it just never clicked for me. I would say good job Kate on playing so well, but she didn’t have the most difficult notes to play. I refuse to praise something that isn’t even mediocre at best.

    • lulu brown says:

      Thank you. I side-eye anyone who tries to say this was good for Kate. This was a pre-recorded 21-second clip accompanied by a professional Pianist. Kate banged on two keys the whole time. Reading some of the comments coddling Kate, you would never guess she is a forty years old woman with three kids. The bar is set so low.

  23. notasugarhere says:

    For context, 17 million watched the Oprah interview in the US, 11.3 million watched it in the UK. This Kate Me Me Me PR sh!tshow was a ratings flop.

    • Agreatreckoning says:

      Right. And it was ITV that aired the Oprah interview. Between William’s flop ratings in October and Kate’s Keen “Festive Glances” at Christmas low numbers, it demonstrates that they really are not as popular as reported to be.

  24. myjobistoprincess says:

    Is that a coat or is that a dress? she got out the car with that coat. can she take off her coats? If london such a cold place (cold hearted, yes) dont perform with your coat on, it gives the impression you’re impatient to get out of there. You’re the host, get comfortable.

    • Demi says:

      It’s a coatdress 🙂 from my understanding, It’s a royal protocol thing they are supposed to keep on their clothes the same way when they first appeared that’s why you will not see the queen takes off her coat.

      • notasugarhere says:

        It is not a royal protocol thing. Other royals in the BRF do remove their coats. Kate has many coatdresses where she also wears a dress underneath for some reason. Just as often, she wears a heavy coat over a day dress – and never removes the coat. Because she only stays 15 minutes. It is incredibly rude. With the Queen, what she often wears is essentially a long blazer over a dress, not a separate coat.

  25. Lizzie says:

    So Kate got clobbered by a car repair show. I think that’s the take a way here. The YouTube views aren’t a clear barometer-a lot of media who don’t care about her we’re watching to see if she was really playing.

    • Agreatreckoning says:

      LOL. The oft touted “rock”, “savior”, “jewel” and whatever else of the monarchy was beat out by a car repair show on Christmas Eve.

  26. mariahlee says:

    As others have said, KP doesn’t care. I’m sure they would have loved to boast about a ratings smash, but widespread coverage of her piano playing (which I’m convinced was the whole purpose of this endeavor) is quite well for them. Kate gets the best PR of the whole family. And while I don’t think she’ll ever reach the status of icon that Meghan occupies, she’s solidified her image as the ideal woman of the Western world’s past that appeals to a certain demographic. Even the piano playing is a regency era throwback. It’s quite brilliant (albeit depressing) image building.

    • Agreatreckoning says:

      I disagree. There’s been an onslaught of stories over the last couple of years about Kate (& Will I guess) being the ones to modernize the monarchy. Appealing to a certain demographic – throwback era, is not modernizing the monarchy. The low numbers do nothing to solidify her image as the ideal woman in any world. Maybe an alternate reality.

      • JT says:

        KP cares very much. Where is the idea that they don’t care coming from?

      • Agreatreckoning says:

        @JT, Is your question to me? Because I believe Kate/KP care very much about the low viewership. W & K will probably jet off on another vacation (if they haven’t done so already) to comfort themselves.

    • MerryGirl says:

      Kate as you say gets the best PR of the whole Royal Family and yet after 10 years (20 if you add the waity years) she is just so mediocre and blah. Not one successful project to call her own, created nothing of impact but she expects to be praised for doing nothing. She has her entire country’s media propping her up and the entire Royal machinery infantilizing a 40 year old woman not to mention buying bots and fudging SM numbers and she still can’t attract a headline beyond what she wears. They can’t boast about the piano stunt ratings because nobody cares. She’s no Diana, she’s no Meghan and if she would just accept her role as the wife of the future future King and stop trying to compete in a one-sided competition of her own jealous making, we could all move on.

    • Lizzie says:

      Kate does get the best PR, so why was the show such a flop? Even extensive PR can’t get more than 1.5 people to watch her. To me it sounds like she turns people off.

    • Sid says:

      Apparently KP was asking people to live tweet the special. I suspect they very much cared about getting good ratings.

      • Debbie says:

        KP asking (begging) people to live-tweet the special — perhaps so that they could boast afterwards that it went “viral” is now being twisted to mean that they don’t care about ratings. To anyone who lived through the Trump era, this is like dejas-vu level gaslighting. That’s like saying, Kate meant to do that. She MEANT to get low ratings. Sure, Jan.

    • lulu brown says:

      Her piano playing did not trend and by the next day the general public moved on to the Queen’s speech. Hell, they even moved on from the Queen’s speech to talk about Meghan’s win against the newspaper. The reality is Kate is a footnote.

    • Nyro says:

      You wrote all that when you just coulda said you’re uncomfortable seeing a white woman continually lose to a black one. Girl, please.

      • mariahlee says:

        Not at all. It genuinely enrages me that Kate gets away with her white woman sainthood, particularly since she’s inferior to Meghan in virtually every way. I’m merely trying to rationalize the situation to avoid being bitter bc it’s unhealthy. Kate has clout and a certain appeal to some people. It’s delusional to pretend otherwise.

      • lulu brown says:

        @Nyro exactly she keeps trying to move the goal post. Since all that she’s written is proven wrong she comes with “it was good P.R. for the Cambridge” How when the P.R stunt didn’t work.

      • swirlmamad says:

        Kate may have appeal to a certain demographic, but in no way does she have any clout. She wouldn’t be spending who-knows-how much buying a social media following otherwise.

      • Nyro says:

        Yeah…no. She has “appeal” and “clout” in the same way Melania Trump does. Neither of those women exist on their own without the black woman their “stans” hate. Kate has done nothing but serve as a vessel for the insecure and racist white women who feel like complete shit in the face of Meghan Markle’s very existence.

      • vs says:

        @Nyro —-
        “Neither of those women exist on their own without the black woman their “stans” hate. Kate has done nothing but serve as a vessel for the insecure and racist white women who feel like complete shit in the face of Meghan Markle’s very existence” —– BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO….exactly; Michelle O and Meghan on one side and women like Melania and Kate on the other; it is as simple as that

    • JT says:

      @Agreatreckoning My question was just in general. Sorry I should have been more clear. I just keep seeing people on this thread say that the numbers don’t matter to KP/WK and I’m like, since when? After all of the shenanigans that the Keens have pulled, I just can’t fathom why people think that KP is satisfied.

  27. CrystalBall says:

    Her piano playing is elementary. Her ability to hoodwink and deceive the general public is masterful.

    • Mirage says:

      That is what I came here to say.
      The piano score was very elementary.
      I studied classical guitar and solfege/music education for 10 years. I sometimes used the piano to practice the singing and deciphering and I could absolutely play this Christmas piano part. It is mostly chords. A bit more complex at the end but really no big deal!

    • Kalana says:

      The amount of unnecessary lying Kate does when all she really has to do is just work a little bit more is still so strange to me. She would much rather put effort into deceptive publicity stunts than just do the work.

    • Lizzie says:

      Maybe more extensive than masterful as the charade was discovered almost as soon as it aired.

  28. AmB says:

    I’d love to see the qualitative breakdown:
    – # who watched the Queen as “proof of life” or “this may be the last one she does”
    – # who watched Jazz Fingers to see if she could actually play the thing (was it clear that this wasn’t part of the live program?)

    • Roslyn says:

      I haven’t watched the Queen’s Christmas message for years. I watched this year because I figured it might be her last, and I watched Kate for the novelty value to see if she could really play a piano. I don’t understand why she did it; it seems so out of character for her and she didn’t look comfortable to me, or seem very accomplished. It’s not as though we have been told she has a love of the instrument and has played for decades so no-one would have been expecting it. There doesn’t seem to be any reason for her to do it, so why on earth did she?

      And why on earth does she persist in wearing all that fake hair?

  29. Nyro says:

    That weave looks even worse from the back. It’s like her stylists only bother to make sure the color matches and that’s it. The fake hair is coarser and heavier than her real hair, they placed it only towards the bottom instead of distributing it more evenly, and then it’s like they barely styled her real hair to blend it properly. I can’t believe she pays for that mess. Anyway, it annoys me.

    • Gabby says:

      She doesn’t pay for that mess, Nyro. She doesn’t pay for a damn thing. That’s on the taxpayers. I hope they enjoy their Buttoned Mutton Mean-Girl — the best that money can buy.

  30. Basi says:

    (This has probably already been said so consider it a +1)
    Putting myself in KKKhates shoes I cannot imagine living her life. Where the bar is so low.
    It’s so embarrassing. Just when I think it can’t get any more so…they throw out this pitiful pretend piano thing. I’m scared but ready with popcorn to see what’s next.

  31. aquarius64 says:

    Was Omid the only RR who reported the show tanked ratings wise?

  32. Pork chops & Apple sauce says:

    I’m sure they got plenty of “likes” on social media, because you can buy bots and have lots of troll accounts, but you can’t fake tv ratings in the same way. This is why their ratings were so low.

  33. Tessa says:

    I think she just likes to be center stage without doing a lot of work to get there. Royals are not “entertainers” but sometimes go on TV shows “for fun” –even Prince Charles does that. But that’s not the only thing they are supposed to do, they are supposed to work. Kate is all smoke and mirrors and does not have the solid work numbers to back it up. It was not really “necessary” that she perform and I don’t think it took “bravery” since she had it set up that it was recorded in advance and no real risk involved especially if there was another pianist playikng.

  34. SueBarbri says:

    They made a mistake through the promotion of this event, as well. I thought the Cambs were much more appealing for xmas when they did the cooking special a few years ago (despite the famous shrug-off or whatever that was). They seemed fun and normal while hanging with Mary Berry–extremely posh, a little boring, but at least they were active and involved while cooking and talking to the other people in the kitchen.

    But they made a mistake with this because–who would turn in to watch other people watch a Christmas concert? And especially these people? The BM had already covered the event and shown us precisely what everybody was wearing and a few photos of the “highlights”, so why would we tune in? To see Will and Kate’s festive glance? To watch her play the piano? Every photo I’ve seen of the extended RF at this thing has been full of sour faces, which seems to contradict the notion that Christmas is supposed to be a season of joy.

  35. Lizzie says:

    Is there a low level dislike of Keen that hasn’t been picked up? These ratings are just so low after a huge media blitz. I suspect, not a hate campaign ala Meghan, but a lot of people are sick of her constant and patronizing PR.

    • Sid says:

      I think a lot of it is just plain old indifference. Outside of a very narrow, specific group the general public isn’t checking for her or her husband like that. Remember how before Meghan arrived the KP social media accounts were struggling to get likes and barely had a million followers? Nobody really cared about them at that point. Then Meghan arrived and after the engagement announcement KP’s social media numbers shot up because of the attention SHE brought to the BRF. That is one of the many reasons I find the Cambridges to be vile. Meghan boosted their profile BIG TIME and they repaid her with harassment and sending their media dogs after her.

    • Linda says:

      @Lizzie
      People are largely indifferent to the royal family. Meghan piqued the interest of people worldwide but after she left no one really cares. That’s why its very curious to me the attention this site gives to Kate and the rest of the royal family.

      • Debbie says:

        @Linda, your comment about attention from “this site” would be far more convincing IF you hadn’t clicked on this story, read the comments, then went to the trouble of writing your own comment. Just sayin’…

  36. Tessa says:

    I wonder if she will channel those old Holiday TV shows, and have William and the children sing with her. It would not surprise me if she tries to do this next year.

  37. Anna says:

    Well, here she had always high viewership….

    • Sid says:

      A freak show will always draw a crowd.

    • Nyro says:

      This is one of only a handful of forums on the internet where Meghan haters haven’t taken over. Of course people are going to speak freely about the Duchess of Aryan here.

      • swirlmamad says:

        Are there any others? I really am hard-pressed to find any site other than this one that doesn’t continually bash Meghan and blow smoke up Kate’s uptight behind.

      • notasugarhere says:

        Lipstickalley has strong Meghan supporters, but it also has obsessive Meghan haters who fled RoyalDish when it shut down the Sussex threads.

  38. JMoney says:

    I don’t think viewership was the reason for this. This was something to feed the tabloids one whom just suffered a big loss in court which they can also count as an “engagement”. I don’t think they wanted to show the kids but as the in person engagements have been duds they needed something for headlines so this was it.

  39. Mads says:

    Every Christmas Eve the BBC broadcast “Carols from King’s” (a Carol service held in the chapel at King’s College, Cambridge University) and this is why they passed on Keen’s vanity project. The palace, Rota and media know the real reason why ITV fell on their sword and agreed to add it to their schedule at the last minute. The irony is her programme was made by the BBC and ITV had to pay them, just delightful lol.

    Also, I don’t care she played in a pre-recorded segment but it’s the duplicitous nature of attempting to portray her doing it live that irritates me.

  40. JT says:

    Wrong place

  41. nina says:

    The Duchess of Buttons and Bows don’t care. She’s just here for the eventual Queen Consort Crown and titles for her family. Her attitude is: ” You can suck it b—tches!”

  42. Lyds says:

    I am one who clicked on the link several times to hear her play—first out of curiosity and then, to see if what people were saying about her Milli Pianilling it was true. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is what it always has been: the royal facade. This is an accomplishment in the very privileged world of people who really don’t need to do much to be admired. Recalling Margaret and her show-tunes and Marie Antoinette and her milkmaid cosplay, Keen with her keys is just the latest Royal vanity showcase. Three claps for you, now we all have actual work to do.

    • Tessa says:

      Kate is now dubbed by her stans: Pianist, Renowned photographer, expert in early childhood, and of course Duchess. I think Princess Margaret probably could play better but she kept any party guests staying (not allowed to leave party) until after she sang at the piano with those show tunes.

  43. Queen Anne says:

    The song itself was absolutely beautiful. Kate playing 2 chords over and over seemed quite strange and the fact that it was pre-recorded and that kp did not admit that fact is really shady. Thank goodness the singer has integrity and a beautiful voice.

  44. HeatherC says:

    About the Youtube ratings. Remember she performed with Tom Walker, an established artist and performer who has his own fan base. One of his videos has almost 200 million views, so his fan base is nothing to sneeze at. Those views don’t necessarily mean they’re tuning in to watch RepliKate have a piano recital where she may or may not have actually played.

    • MkatW says:

      Yep. This. I really enjoyed the Tom Walker performance. Was watching only for him, NOT for Duchess Buttons. Would prefer my view went in support of the singer!!

  45. TEALIEF says:

    Ye shall know them by their fruits, that’s all I’ve got for these two.

    I’m 20+ years out of secondary school, these were part of the basics of my secondary school education up to 14. I can still run a few arpeggios on the keyboard, and play “We three Kings” on the flute and recorder, it does not make me a musician. It’s basic, just like the Home Economics, needlework and art classes were. It’s like banging on about one’s cross stitch, why?

  46. The Recluse says:

    How can we get in on this Ghost Story For Christmas programming? It sounds awesome. They need to show that stuff over here on PBS or even that pathetic BBC America channel – which hardly bothers showing British programs anymore.

    • heygingersnaps says:

      It’s a very short story but it was really good! I normally don’t watch horror/ghost shows but this one, I tuned in and wasn’t disappointed. Also, props to my son for giving me several scares by going downstairs to the lounge without us hearing him whilst we were watching that. (He was too excited for Christmas to come and kept waking up during the night.)

    • Deering24 says:

      Seriously—it’s an Xmas tradition I’d love to see here.

  47. Just Me says:

    Did she practice playing only the white keys on the Queen’s gold piano?

  48. heygingersnaps says:

    If khate really wanted to honour frontline workers she would give them something tangible, like maybe contribute to a break room, nhs staff are fundraising for decent break rooms. Give something back to normal everyday people but they don’t because for these “royals”, it’s all about themselves and eff the peasants. This stunt was all for her ego and no one else

  49. jferber says:

    In the first pic, it seems William has gotten lessons on how not to look at his wife with contempt. I can just imagine, “No, William, don’t look at her like you despise her. Be more neutral. If you can’t do “loving,” you can’t. This will do.” Though I don’t like Kate, I couldn’t live with a man who was so hostile and belittling.

  50. PrincessK says:

    I watched the whole thing again on Youtube and Kate’s piano playing was absent, it is only available as a clip on its own, which tells you everything.
    I also felt my stomach turn when I saw Knauf in attendance and singing in the cathedral.

  51. Tessa says:

    THe way the stans carry on, Kate playing the piano (aka playing some chords) was like finding a cure for COVID. I just don’t get all the overpraise.

  52. yinyang says:

    Who’s that guy. I’m going to be following him.