SAN FRANCISCO—Samba TV is reporting that 11.7 million U.S. households watched The Coronation of King Charles between 5am and 10am EST on May 6 across select broadcast and cable news networks that included CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN.
The newly released Samba TV data also found a notable correlation between viewing Netflix's new Bridgerton spinoff, "Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story" and interest in the Coronation.
"Television audiences came out in droves for the Coronation of King Charles, delivering the most-watched day this year in the United Kingdom,” according to Cole Strain, vice president of measurement products, Samba TV. “The occasion also marked a massive day of viewership on the other side of the pond, with almost 12 million U.S. households tuning into the historic events despite the early morning hours.”
"The Royals also propelled viewership for Netflix's new Bridgerton spinoff, `Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’ with almost 1 in 5 U.S. households that watched the new Netflix show tuning into the Coronation live, while that number more than doubled in the U.K,” according to Strain. “Younger audiences in the U.S. were more likely to catch the historical period drama, over-indexing by double digits on `Queen Charlotte’ and under-indexing on the Coronation live relative to the average U.S. household. Meanwhile, older generations appeared to embrace the historic event on television live, over-indexing by nearly 25%."
Samba’s data showed that total TV viewership in the U.K. on Coronation Day May 6, 2023 was the highest it has been so far this year. Additionally, total U.K. TV viewership on May 6 was 3% higher than Sept. 8, 2022, which marked Queen Elizabeth's death, but it was 4% lower than Sept. 19, 2022, the day of the Queen's funeral.
Samba found that 18% of the U.S. "Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story" viewers watched the Coronation of King Charles live on television. In the U.K., 46% of "Queen Charlotte" viewers watched the Coronation.
In the U.S., millennials (aged 25 to 34) over-indexed by 12% on "Queen Charlotte," while under-indexing by 9% on the Coronation. Meanwhile, older 65 to 74 year old households in the U.S. over-indexed by 24% on the Coronation and under-indexed by 6% on "Queen Charlotte."
