Seven Network crowned ratings winner for royal wedding coverage
It was not all love and warm wishes in London on Saturday night.
Rival Australian TV networks covering the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were in a fierce tussle to show the most viewers the dresses, the kiss and everything else, pulling in a local audience of about 4 million during the main event.
The Seven Network won the night, its broadcast of the ceremony capturing an average of 1.95 million viewers across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
Senior presenters Melissa Doyle and Michael Usher led the show, crossing to Europe bureau chief Hugh Whitfeld and correspondent Laurel Irving, their coverage boosted by access to the resources of Seven affiliate ITN. Sunrise hosts David Koch and Samantha Armytage had broadcast from London all week to drum up interest.
By a wide margin Seven beat closest competitor Nine, its team led by Today hosts Karl Stefanovic and Georgie Gardner.
Nine reached an average of 1.47 million viewers across the five cities during the main event — only 65,000 more than Seven achieved in their warm-up coverage. Nine's "unrivalled" reporting team and "unparalled" commentary panel of royal insiders were untriumphant.
Between 6pm and midnight, Seven enjoyed 44 per cent of the overall metro audience share, compared to Nine's 31 per cent.
Their only other commercial rival Ten was no threat.
Having bowed out of the contest, Ten played back to back episodes of the UK reality show Ambulance. Eyewitness News ranked as its top performing show on the night, coming in at 18th place.
The ABC, which defended its programming expenditure against tabloid criticism this week, was a long way from the throne, the news proving more popular than nuptials.
Hosts Annabel Crabb and Jeremy Ferndandez pulled in half a million viewers for the ceremony, 6000 viewers less than the 7pm bulletin.
The coverage by SBS, hosted by journalist Ray Martin, presenter Myf Warhurst and comedian Joel Creasey, did not feature in the top 20.
In 2011, 4.09 million Australians across three channels tuned in to see Prince William and Kate Middleton marry and become the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.