Saturday’s coronation was not a flop, but it was not a success either. Despite the gloomy, rainy weather, thousands of people came out in London and they filled the Mall. There were a lot of British people who genuinely wanted to celebrate their new king and queen, and it is what it is. Now, while London was buzzing, the “coronation parties” and viewing events around the UK were absolutely a flop. I saw photo after photo of poorly-attended or near-empty outdoor viewing parties and theaters. You could argue, hey, it was raining, people just stayed at home and watched it on their own TVs. Millions did. But… millions did not.
The King’s Coronation was watched by an average of 18 million viewers in the UK, overnight figures have shown. The ceremony, which saw the King and Queen Camilla crowned, was broadcast simultaneously across a range of channels between 11:00 and 13:00 BST.
Viewing peaked at 20.4 million as the King was crowned just after midday, audience measurement group Barb said. The figures are smaller than when an average of 26.5 million viewers tuned in for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.
An average of 18.8 million people tuned into watch the Coronation across 11 channels and services, including BBC One, Two, ITV and Sky News. On BBC One, a peak of 13.4 million viewers tuned in to the broadcast led by Huw Edwards and the channel had an average audience of 11.9 million, the BBC said. ITV said an average of 3.3 million viewers watched the ceremony on ITV1 between 10:45 and 13:00.
Channel 4 opted to show film Johnny English Strikes Again instead of the Coronation with an average of 138,000 people preferring to the watch Rowan Atkinson film. Meanwhile, on Channel 5 children were entertained with The Adventures of Paddington Bear and SpongeBob SquarePants.
The funeral service for the King’s ex-wife Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 was seen by 31 million on BBC and ITV – making it the highest TV audience on record.
I watched the BBC coverage, although I switched on MSNBC’s coverage a few times, just to see what they were doing. The Americans seemingly treated the Chubbly like the whole thing needed an Americanized commentary or else it would be dreadfully boring. At least the BBC comms shut up every now and then. Anyway, as I said – not a flop, but Diana outsold. It also felt like there was some kind of acknowledgement that – despite reports of Camilla’s “victory lap” – there was an effort to downplay Camilla and the fact that she was being crowned alongside her husband. Charles wanted all of the attention, and British broadcasters were happy to keep the focus off of the most unpopular consort in centuries.
Also: I assume that there were a lot of people watching to see the soap opera, especially with Harry there. If Harry had not gone to the coronation, I wonder if the numbers would have been significantly lower. Same with QEII’s funeral – millions watched to pay respect, for sure. But also, Meghan and Harry were there and millions of people wanted to see how they were treated, whether they were snubbed, etc.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- The Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in Westminster Abbey.,Image: 774180249, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Richard Pohle / Avalon
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- Mike Tindall, Zara Tindall, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Prince Andrew Coronation of King Charles III, May 6th 2023.King Charles III and Camilla the Queen Consort, members of the Royal family and VIP’s arrive at Westminster Abbey for the Coronation service. Pictures by Dan Charit Coronation of King Charles III, May 6th 2023.King Charles III and Camilla the Queen Consort, members of the Royal family and VIP’s arrive at Westminster Abbey for the Coronation service. ;,Image: 774185717, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Unknown / Avalon
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- Coronation of King Charles III 6th May 2023 King Charles III pictured arriving with Camilla the Queen Consort for the coronation service at Westminster Abbey. 06-05-23,Image: 774194451, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Dan Charity / Avalon
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- Queen Camilla receives Queen Mary’s Crown during her coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey, London.,Image: 774197076, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Matthews / Avalon
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- Queen Camilla receives a royal salute from members of the military in the gardens of Buckingham Place, London, following the coronation.,Image: 774211937, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Milligan / Avalon
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- The Duke of Sussex arriving ahead of the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Westminster Abbey, London. Featuring: Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex Where: London, United Kingdom When: 06 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- (left to right 1st row) the Prince of Wales, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, the Princess of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh at the coronation ceremony of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in Westminster Abbey, London. Featuring: William Prince of Wales, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Catherine Princess of Wales and Prince Edward Duke of Edinburgh Where: London, United Kingdom When: 06 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles III wearing the St Edward’s Crown and Queen Camilla wearing the Queen Mary’s Crown during their coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey, London. Featuring: Queen Camilla and King Charles III Where: London, United Kingdom When: 06 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Prince Edward, The Prince of Wales kisses his father King Charles III during his coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey, London. Featuring: Prince Edward and King Charles III Where: London, United Kingdom When: 06 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles III during his coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey, London. Featuring: Queen Camilla Where: London, United Kingdom When: 06 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles III during his coronation at Westminster Abbey, London. Featuring: King Charles III Where: London, United Kingdom When: 06 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The British Royal family make an appearence on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after the Coronation Where: London, United Kingdom When: 06 May 2023 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
People in the UK needed to watch it. Let them all see where all their money went and why the “commoners” will have to suck it up and tighten their belts even more.
So the queen’s funeral on a weekday had higher viewership than this? LOL.
It was a really low key ceremony overall – not in terms of the ceremonial trappings etc, but in terms of the emotions at it. Like it was really boring and almost felt….sad, IDK. i think it emphasized how old and dull Charles and Camilla are.
Yeah…it was underwhelming. When the Queen was crowned, she was young…it’s like she wasn’t supposed to be monarch just yet…
Seeing Charles and Camilla at such an old age with an heir who is practically chomping at the bit to be King is just sad…the heir couldn’t even be bothered to memorize a few lines.
@lemons and when you think how few televisions and television channels there were when the Queen was crowned? I have said before there are 79,000,000 streets in the UK, but only 3000 were having street parties, plus in my little town there was a big turn out for the local fete that didn’t even mention the coronation. I turned on the news to try and find out actual NEWS on what was going on in the rest of the world. But it was blanket coverage of this farce. I wonder if those people, like myself who were looking for ACTUAL NEWS were used to make the viewing figures look higher than they actually were
I think Charles and Sidechick were trying to teleplay “weighted by the dignity and solemnity of the occasion” — as it is just to crass to gloat and be jubilant – but since neither have much dignity, their face acting played as glum and melancholy. But Sidechick’s gloating grinch grin kept peeking through.
I think a lot of people had it on in the background and dipped in and out – i was one of them.
It went on too long and my dad said that it looked like it was too much for Chuck – i have to agree as it seemed that he struggled at some points. Chuck was WAAAAY more relaxed at the concert last night.
Is that that racist Hussey b*tch standing behind Camilla in the pic where she is seated with the 2 church guys behind her???
Sorry if this has already been noted. I made a point to avoid coronation coverage until my curiosity overwhelmed……
Lady Hussey was just in the congregation. The two ladies were Camilla’s sister and her best friend.
Also, if it was broadcast on almost all the channels in the UK (I will forever be confused about UK television broadcasting. Do they only have like 4 or 5 channels???) then people were kind of forced to watch it if they turned the TV on. I know I always keep the TV on when I leave my dog at home, he just seems less agitated when I do. Or people who need to plop their children in front of the TV for a moment…….so I wonder how many people actually WATCHED it on TV……
Don’t worry, we have more than four or five channels these days. It’s actually eight and we should be getting this thing called ‘streaming’ any day now.
@SarahSC- No shit youre able to stream in the UK. I was asking about broadcast television.
No, we have zillions of channels.
Traditionally, the UK only had a handful of “terrestrial” channels which are channels you could receive just by plugging your TV into an aerial. (And originally there were only three: BBC1, BBC2, and ITV. BBC1 was mainstream, BBC2 was more intellectual/artsy, and ITV was the only commercial channel and regarded as more downmarket. Channel 4 which originally was created as a very intellectual/arts channel started in 1982, and then Channel 5 which was/is extremely lowbrow started in the 1990s.)
Britain has had satellite/cable TV since at least the 1980s, which of course gives access to tons more channels. I grew up in the 1990s but I’m working class so I grew up with just 4 (and later 5) channels, but that hasn’t been the norm for a long time.
In 2007, British TV started to move to digital and phased out analog completely, which meant that you could no longer watch TV just by plugging it into an aerial but now needed a “digibox” that went between the TV and the aerial. But the digibox brought with it access to all the free digital channels, which are called Freeview channels. Right now there are something like 90 Freeview channels, which everyone in the UK has access to.
Then of course subscribing to a cable or satellite package gives you many channels on top of that. And loads of Brits subscribe to Netflix and other streamers, and any TV purchased in the last 15 or so years will be a smart TV that has buttons for Netflix, Prime, etc.
But because the 4-5 main terrestrial channels (mainly 4, as Channel 5 was never really taken seriously) dominated the TV landscape for so long, there’s still a cultural thing where people sort of consider them the “real” TV channels, and the dozens of other Freeview channels and hundreds of cable channels are just kind of… also there.
There were probably at least 50 TV channels in Britain not showing the coronation, so it’s not lack of choice. Younger people mainly watch Netflix or cable, elderly people tend to stick religiously to either the BBC (if they’re middle class or upper ciass) or ITV (if they’re working class).
I read that only the bbc had the rights to broadcast the coronation ceremony. The other main channels played other things. ITV Played the film Jonny English strikes again, channel five is usually childrens tv shows. Is that wrong?
I wasn’t watching tv. I was watching the livestream of the royal family YouTube channel. It stopped showing the coronation once Charles arrived at the abbey, and was waiting in his carriage. From a distance, I saw a man open the coach door, speak to the King, who out had hand to his brow and shook his head, the man must have been telling him William was late. When the man finished talking he closed the coach door. Then it switched to showing the outside of the church for a while and then soldiers with guns (getting ready to fire the salute?).
I switched to the bbc YouTube livestream which showed inside the abbey. I didn’t understand what had happened until I read later only the bbc had the rights to broadcast the ceremony.
It’s true people still consider the four channels the real channels, and often only switch to digital/cable/sky if there’s nothing of interest on those four.
There was also back in the dark ages, of only four channels, a Welsh TV station. It was supposed to be only broadcast for wales, but I was in the north of England and my tv could be tuned to receive it. (Most people didn’t bother tuning it in. My house had it on the upstairs tv in my bedroom, but not the main set downstairs.). It showed Welsh language tv shows which we couldn’t understand, but also some English. I’d use it to watch reruns of cell block h (Australian womens prison soap).
@SamuelWhiskers- sorry to reply so ridiculously late, but thank you for the thorough explanation about British television! It’s something I had been confused about for a long time! Mainly because the only channels I had ever heard of read about were BBC, ITV and Sky, although of course logically it did not make sense to me that the UK would only have a handful of channels.
So what this says is the Brits would rather watch funerals than Charles’ coronation.
This was more of a downer than the funeral!
On a side note: about that photo of Will kissing daddy’s cheek….anyone else get the Fredo vibe? Kiss of death? “I’m coming for you pops”?
Honestly, only reason I checked online was to see if a bolt of lightning had struck them. Disappointed in Mother Nature now.
Same, Louis, same.
It’s so sad and pathetic. I’d feel bad if it weren’t for ALL THE OTHER SHIT CHARLES HAS DONE!
To be honest, I expected at least half the country would be watching.
Guess not.
Charles is probably pissed that his crowning couldn’t beat his ex-wife’s funeral in the ratings.
If he cared about his ratings he shouldn’t have cut out the tiaras, coronets, and dukes in fancy costumes. The fact he did, makes me think he didn’t care.
Yes, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of jewelry enthusiasts opted out because of the lack of tiaras and other major bling.
Watch it because of Harry as soon as Chuck got all regalia I turned it off and enjoyed Twitter and Titkok having field.It was boring and so was concert last night.Katy Perry was super bad, and all crowds was hyping and royal balcony too -which I didnt understand (if Harry Styles or Elton were there I would it would be understandable but those singers were not that great at all) It gave vibes lets pretend how we have such a great fun and good time so we can justified tax payer money we were spent.
A ton of people pointed out how bad she sounded. Also poor thing tripped walking in, couldn’t find her seat, and her curtsey was horrendous. I saw some people saying that her curtsey was better than Meghan’s.
I did the same ewissa! I watched until Charles was crowned and then headed to twitter as I knew Sidechick was next, and I am hoping the datapoints show how many watched her – or how many dropped out.
Easternviolet I laughed hard when somebody edited sound from Harry Potter and the moment crown touched Camillas head “Slitherin!”🐍🐍
OMG I saw that too and HOWLED!!!
@Ewissa I now need to scour Twitter to find this clip 😂
I woke up just as the Rottweiler was crowned. I couldn’t take the fidgeting with her hair. Like FFS stop it!!!!
And she looked so uncomfortable wearing it. Didn’t she practice??? I was sitting there praying for it to topple off, so Di could have a laugh in heaven.
I think people begging citizens to come and get free food and just ignore the whole Coronation in the back was hilarious.
Also, as some pointed out, if Harry and Meghan had been on that balcony, the ratings would have skyrocketed. Cutting off their noses.
All the pictures I’ve seen of Charles. He looks sad or dissapointed. I wonder if he thought all this pomp and circomstance would make the world all of a sudden love him like they did his mom? And when he came in in the carriage and was booed and all the signs he realized he will never be loved. That may be what it takes for him to realize the monarchy needs to go.
I wish I could agree with you here, but I see Charles fundamentally as a narcissist, and I don’t think he’d be capable of having the thought of “it needs to go” (for the greater good)… unless William does something to anger him, in which he could burn it all to the ground in spite and not let William having the shiny thing. But I assume he is very perplexed why people boo him and do not give him the deference his mother enjoyed.
I didn’t watch, but have looked at a few video excerpts and pictures. I wonder if part of it is that he feels like the dog that finally catches the car — and the reality is more overwhelming than pleasant. Part is surely the realization that the love and respect that his mother garnered hasn’t transferred to him — and won’t. Another bit, though, is that I can’t imagine the emotional complexity of wanting something very badly — and knowing that in order to get it, your mother / parent has to die. When I watched William sort of kiss Charles while reading cue cards, I thought it might have hit Charles all at once. He’s not really up for the job, not universally loved, and his oldest son now probably wants him dead — at least on some level. I’m hoping that he’s also honest enough to realize a glimmer or two of what he’s lost in his appalling treatment of (Good King) Harry, the Sussex family, and possibly even Diana. Charles was cruel to the very few people who would have loved him for himself, and now he’s left with Camilla and William — and that’s all it’s ever going to be for him.
He was booed? I missed that.
I saw a video clip of protesters walking away (moved on by police) singing “you can stick your coronation up your arse, up your arse.”
The problem for Charles wasn’t necessarily Camilla, it was because a lot of Brits are all “royaled out.” Last year we had a long weekend of “celebrations” for the Platinum Jubbly. Then there was the week long saturated media coverage for the funeral. Yes, these are all “once in a lifetime events” but, it became a bit like buses – you don’t see one for ages and then three come along at once. It was all too much over a short period of time.
Not surprised at the low viewing numbers – the whole thing was a textbook “This meeting could have been an email” situation.
They also had negative reviews on the coronation concert. But they should have been thankful at least Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Nicole Sherzinger showed up .
I watched House Hunters! LOL