Royal wedding: 30 million Americans watched ceremony live

The ceremony was aired on 15 US networks throughout the early morning

Americans braved early mornings across the country to tune into the nuptials between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

The ceremony was aired on 15 US networks, watched by 29.2 million Americans (via Deadline); certainly, a jump from the 23 million who tuned in for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011, according to Nielsen - not surprising considering Markle is American herself.

For comparison, the wedding between Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana saw 17 million people tune in back in 1981.

The new Duke and Duchess of Sussex also saw 6.9 million interactions overall across Facebook and Twitter on social media.

NBC saw the highest viewership overall with 6.4 million viewers, with ABC's coverage only slightly lagging behind with 6.34 million. Among cable news networks, Fox News Channel won out with 2.036 million watching their coverage of the ceremony.

The networks all found their own way to strike a balance between royal formality, celeb-spotting, and irrepressible excitement at the pageantry: CBS' Gayle King chanelled her “inner Beyoncé” by changing her hat/fascinator every hour, ABC relied on a string of royal experts, while NBC had the likes of Megyn Kelly, Kathie Lee Gifford, and Al Roker dispersed amongst the crowds.

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