Oprah Winfrey hooked more than 17 million viewers last night

It was enough to take a look last night on social media to anticipate that the famous communicator Oprah Winfrey would dominate the audience in the United States with the two-hour special she presented, in which Prince Henry and Duchess Meghan made strong statements about her experiences with the life of royalty.

According to a Los Angeles Times publication today, the special called “Oprah with Megan and Harry” reached 17.1 million viewers from coast to coast in the United States, via CBS. It was a production that, according to the newspaper, cost the TV company $ 7 million in exclusivity rights and for which the commercial costs amounted to $ 350,000 for every 30 seconds.

This audience reach is seen as impressive for this time in which television competes with multiple digital platforms and in which there is a wider generation that prefers to access the internet to access content relationships more immediately.

Compared to other audience records, the interview that will be seen tonight in England did not surpass that which Winfrey conducted with the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, in February 1993, when he obtained 62 million viewers. In those days, national television only competed with cable systems.

Last night’s special, however, surpassed the exclusivity achieved by journalist Diane Sawyer with former Olympic champion Caitlyn Jenner over her change of life as a woman. The interview conducted in April 2015 was viewed by 16,900,000 people through ABC.