CBS is betting on huge ratings for Sunday’s interview with Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex – former actor Meghan Markle – to the tune of up to $9 million.
And Markle says she’s “ready to talk.”
The two-hour interview hosted by Oprah Winfrey is set to follow “60 minutes” in U.S. markets, and CBS added the rights to international markets via agreement with Winfrey’s Harpo Productions.
The price is between $7 million and $9 million, according to the Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the contract.
A spokeswoman for the couple said they are not being compensated for the interview.
CBS was among three networks pitched by Harpo (NBC and ABC were the others, according to people familiar with the situation in a Fox News report) and hopes to double the usual commercial price for 30-second ads – charging about $325,000, according to ad buyers referenced in the Fox story.
Prince Harry and Ms. Markle, who now live in Montecito, Calif., said last year they would step away from Britain’s royal family, and it hasn’t been a smooth transition.
Markle, 39, via promo clips, says Winfrey approached her for an interview ahead of her 2018 wedding.
“I couldn’t have said yes to you then, that wasn’t my choice to make,” she said.
“We’re on the other side of a lot of life experience that’s happened and also that we have the ability to make our own choices in a way,” she shared.
“So as an adult who lived a really independent life to then go into this construct that is different than I think what people imagine it to be, it’s really liberating to be able to have the right and the privilege in some ways to be able to say yes. I mean, I’m ready to talk.”
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