Here’s an interesting statistic: 2.4 million people watched the first episode of ‘Harry and Meghan’ on Netflix. No wonder it featured so heavily on the front pages of our national newspapers. This means that I was among a tiny minority who didn’t watch it. A tiny minority of 64 million people.
The gutter press has informed me that everyone is talking about the show. Yet in my admittedly small social circle, no one is talking about it. Some people, like Daily Mail readers, are clearly obsessed with it, given that 19 pages of today’s edition were dedicated to the story, such as there was one. I read today the Mail had 96 pages, so 20% of the entire paper was about the exiled royals. Given that 18% of the Mail is handed over to advertisers, 25% of the available news hole was about Harry and Meghan. These statistics don’t lie. But everywhere else, the royal obsession is nowhere near so great.
More people will watch the Netflix shows because they are there and it’s something to watch in the long, dark, cold winter months. Who hasn’t wasted large chunks of their lives watching dross on TV? We all have. But I put it to you, my loyal reader, that those who truly, madly and deeply wanted to see this show have already seen it. The rest of us can take it or leave it. I am in the leave it category.
The biggest selling newspaper in the land is the Mail, with around 800,000 copies sold. The Sun is below that and these two red tops are well clear of the rest. In short, hardly anyone buys a newspaper these days, preferring to read on-line, preferably free, newspapers or none of them. When you see or hear a newspaper review, you should be thinking, who is this for? Certainly not the 60-odd million who don’t buy them.
“Did you see Harry and Meghan?” is not a question I have been asked so far. And if it ever gets asked, it will probably be just for a laugh. I don’t like the hate in the media, especially that directed towards Ms Markle which to my eyes has clear racial overtones, but I feel no desire to defend them, either. That’s because I find it all so boring and, given that only 2.4m have tuned in so far, maybe I’m not the only one.
More people watched Coronation Street than Harry and Meghan. I’ll bet it’s a far better soap opera and far more believable.
