Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah: How the media spectacle played out

Around 17 million Americans tuned in on Sunday night to watch Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s two-hour sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey in their new neighborhood of Montecito. It’s one of the most-watched TV moments in the last year, though it’s well shy of the 90 million who watched the Super Bowl. The interview was the couple’s first after a public, contentious rift with the British royal family.

The duke and duchess of Sussex revealed that a year after joining the royal family, Markle was so depressed that she contemplated suicide, and when she reached out to the palace for help, she was turned down.

Also playing into that were shocking instances of racism and bullying within the palace, including the couple’s claim that while Markle was pregnant with their son Archie, someone in the family expressed concern about what color his skin would be.

The interview is scheduled to air tonight in the UK, but the tabloids there are already running wall-to-wall coverage of it.

“We watched it as an entertainment event and a sort of real live version of

‘The Crown’ right before our eyes,” says Joe Flint, entertainment business reporter for Wall Street Journal.