Over 725,000 Irish households flocked to their screens to watch the Harry and Meghan interview on RTE.
Love them or hate them, the broadcaster’s controversial decision to air the drama filled special with Oprah Winfrey appears to have paid off, with over half of those watching TV in Ireland on Monday night tuning in to the royal rumble.
And the mega figures make the show the most watched programme on the Irish channel so far this year.
The interview, which has sent shockwaves through the British royal family, had a 53.5% share of all viewers in Ireland on Monday night, according to TV ratings company TAM/Nielsen.
A further 100,000 viewers to date have streamed the special on RTÉ Player.
The two-hour primetime special proved to be a hit among the 15 to 34 age category in Ireland with a 64% share.
Meanwhile, over 12 million were watching at its peak on ITV and in the US, the CBS interview pulled in 17.1 million viewers.
Some 12.4 million people were watching the interview at its peak in the UK, and the two-hour interview had an average of 11.1 million viewers during the 9pm-11pm ITV slot.
An added 2.2 million viewers streamed the programme live on the ITV Hub.
ITV said the broadcast was viewed by “more than half of people watching television across the UK at that time” with a share of 54.4 per cent of all television viewers in the UK.
But the interview was beaten in the ratings war by the British Prime Minister’s lockdown addresses last year, and the Queen’s message to the UK last April, both of which amassed more than 14 million views.
The couple’s wedding in May 2018 drew in a peak audience of 27.7 million in the UK.
In the US, where the 90-minute interview was aired on Sunday night on CBS, 17.1 million watched, including a 2.6 rating among the coveted demographic of adults aged 18 to 49, according to CBS.
CBS Presents Oprah With Meghan And Harry is available to watch on RTÉ Player for a further 30 days.
