Viewers complain over ad breaks during Harry and Meghan interview

Highly anticipated interview with royal couple has aired in the US

Viewers have complained about the number of ads featured during Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey.

The hugely anticipated TV event, which aired in the US on CBS last night (7 March), saw the couple give their first sit-down interview since stepping back as senior members of the royal family.

Viewers were quick to share their thoughts over the programme’s shocking revelations, however, many people took to Twitter to air their annoyances at the number of ad breaks featured across the 90-minute interview.

“30 minutes of interview, 90 minutes of ads. Oprah is sick,” complained one user, while another added: “Three quarters of this interview is ads. My girl Oprah getting paid!”

Read more: How to watch Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview in the UK

“Oprah!! Did we really need all these ADs???” asked a third person.

Someone else wrote: “Oprah out here cutting to an ad break every five mins and the royal family is shivering in their boots!”

British users in particular appeared to have been stunned at the amount of commercial breaks, given UK shows tend to run for longer without interruptions.

One person wrote: “Gosh Americans have a lot of ads! Yes I’m watching the Oprah interview and I’m not going to apologise.”

As reported byThe Wall Street Journal, the network was “seeking roughly  $325,000 (£234,801) for 30 seconds of commercial time during the program according to ad buyers, about twice the normal price of ad time in that time period”. 

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“Oprah really tryna make bank from this interview with all these ads” wrote someone on Twitter, while another said: “I just know the money Oprah making off these ads is ASTRONOMICAL.”

CBSViacom is reported to have paid Winfrey’s production company, Harpo Productions, at least $7m (£5m) for rights to broadcast the interview.

The TV special will air in the UK on ITV tonight (8 March) at 9pm.