Royal Ratings Flop As Kate’s ITV Christmas Special Fails to Make BARB Top 50

British royal coverage runs on certainty. Kate Middleton is endlessly described as the most popular royal alive. Polls get waved around, and headlines repeat the claim. Yet when popularity faces its simplest test, who actually shows up, the story collapses.

BARB’s official figures for 22 to 28 December 2025 show that ITV’s Royal Carols Together at Christmas failed to make the Top 50 most-watched programmes. This followed months of promotion and glowing previews. At the same time, Meghan Sussex, framed by much of the same press as unpopular and divisive, continues to draw international audiences and serious commercial results. The numbers point in one direction, and the coverage points in another.

When Popularity Refuses to Show Up

ITV framed the carols special as a festive centrepiece, and much of the press played along. Viewers did not. BARB figures place the programme outside the Top 50 for the week, despite peak holiday scheduling and months of advance coverage. Ratings matter because they reflect behaviour, not approval expressed in polls.

That contrast is striking, given how the show was sold. The Times recently cited a YouGov poll showing Kate Middleton as the most popular royal, with 68 per cent holding a positive view, ahead of William, Princess Anne and the King, as reported by Kate Mansey. If that popularity were as solid as claimed, it should have translated into viewers. It did not.

Media outlets that usually dissect Meghan’s performance down to the decimal point showed little appetite for analysis here with Kate. No post-mortems have been conducted. No questions were asked about audience fatigue. There is no scrutiny when it comes to Kate, while the claim of unmatched popularity remained intact, untouched by evidence pointing the other way.

Contrast this with Meghan Sussex, whose success invites suspicion and forensic coverage. Kate’s failure passes quietly, while claims of unmatched popularity remain untouched by evidence pointing the other way.

Meghan Sussex and the Numbers the Press Cannot Shake

While Kate’s ratings slipped quietly out of sight, Meghan’s work faced the opposite treatment. Her Netflix lifestyle series drew strong international viewing. Her brand, As Ever, converted attention into sales, figures that continue to unsettle a media class accustomed to deciding who is worthy of consumer loyalty. Faced with results they could not dismiss, large sections of the British press shifted focus away from reach and towards tone policing instead.

Critics declared the show a failure before audiences could form opinions. Rumours of a dropped Netflix deal were a dominant story throughout 2025. Yet, when Netflix later confirmed its continued backing and a renewed relationship, the correction never travelled as far as the speculation of failure. When success arrives attached to Meghan’s name, the coverage works overtime to reframe it as something negative.

Who Gets Grace and Who Gets Scrutiny

Failure happens. Underperformance happens. The issue is not that Kate’s programme struggled. The issue is who gets protected from consequences. Kate’s misfire prompted no reckoning. Meghan’s wins trigger interrogation and a media smear campaign.

That imbalance sits at the heart of the story. Meghan’s ambition gets treated as a provocation and offence to the social and royal hierarchy. Kate’s mediocrity gets wrapped in reassurance and fluff pieces and circulated to remind the public of how good and popular she is.

Malcolm X once warned that newspapers can teach readers to love power and resent those who challenge it. The public response to Meghan suggests that the lesson did not fully land. Viewers watched anyway, and her show has been in the top ten in multiple countries. Demand for As Ever products proved strong, with frequent sell-outs.

If popularity produces no viewers and unpopularity produces global demand, then something in the media-driven narrative is broken. BARB measured one reality while the media sold another. Meghan’s continued success shows that audiences still recognise authenticity, even when coverage tries to tarnish it.