‘Oprah With Meghan and Harry’ Made Sunday Night TV Great Again

No matter how you feel about Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, or the royals in general, you have to admit Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special was great TV. At least, it was the first time all eyes were watching the same show on Sunday night since the final season of Game of Thrones. With just a two-hour interview, Oprah Winfrey pulled off the impossible: she got the whole world tuning into the same show. Not only that, but Winfrey’s interview was a masterclass in empathetic interviewing and television journalism. Oprah with Meghan and Harry proved that appointment television isn’t dead. In fact, we as a society seem to be thirsting for it.

Oprah with Meghan and Harry marked the first time ever that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and her husband, Prince Harry, have sat down for a no-holds barred interview about their life as working royals. Oprah Winfrey had reportedly been working on landing the interview for years and last night was worth that wait. Winfrey not only got scoops from the couple like the sex of their unborn child — a girl! — but also landed on a number of shocking revelations about what drove the couple away from being top-tier working royals. Some of the most stunning reveals included the news that it was Kate Middleton who reportedly made Markle cry in the lead up to her wedding, Prince Charles stopped taking his son’s calls, and that someone in the Royal Family (who is not the Queen or Prince Philip) raised concerns over the unborn Prince Archie’s skin tone.

But maybe the most heartbreaking part of Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry was when Markle revealed that in 2019 she began to have suicidal ideation. Markle specifically told Winfrey that she “didn’t want to be alive anymore” and that when she turned to “the Institution” for help, she was told there was nothing they could do for her. If that wasn’t troubling enough, she and Harry were told that their infant son Archie would not be getting the typical security detail assigned to all royals, nor would he get a title. The issue escalated to the point that Prince Harry’s own security was revoked. Within this context, the couple’s decision to leave the Royal Family and strike out on their own makes all the more sense. It also painted a portrait that seemed eerily close to the way The Crown Season 4 depicted life for Prince Harry’s doomed mother, Princess Diana.

But there is a difference between real life and television. The Crown is a fictional version of true events, dramatized to the extreme. Last night’s big interview was also a type of television: TV journalism. It’s the crossroads between real life and fiction, meaning there is an element of truth to it, but it’s still a carefully constructed version of that truth. The person at the helm of last night’s big interview? One of the great geniuses of television journalism, Oprah Winfrey. She not only came researched and prepared to cite examples and pursue juicy follow ups, but she also is undoubtedly the person most responsible for how the final two-hour interview took shape on our screens. From opting for a pal’s pergola as the interview’s setting to her incredulous looks of shock, Oprah made the interview what it was: a fascinating intersection of royal gossip and big conversations about the role royals still have to play in the 21st century.

Because at the end of the day, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s story is about two things. First, it’s about them as people and second it’s about the role of the royal family, period. Prince Harry was the first royal to open up about his own mental health struggles and the role therapy played in helping him finally come to terms with the loss of his mother. Last night’s conversation was as much a continuation of that conversation — a call to arms to own up to mental health issues — as it was an airing of dirty laundry. Our lurid fascination in royal gossip belies a deeper philosophical concern: what role do the royals play in our world if not to be characters in a soap opera? They have no power, only titles. They have no profession except to be public figures.

Oprah With Meghan and Harry offered a new perspective on the image the royal family has cultivated for decades, if not centuries. Instead of poised, empathetic, moral leaders, they come across as racist, jealous, and cold. Perhaps that’s only Meghan and Harry’s perspective, but judging from the range of conversations this one interview has inspired, it’s a conversation our society wants to have. Hell, we need to have these big debates about the roles racism plays in classism and the importance of mental health solutions for everyone.

Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special was a ratings hit because it was the perfect confluence of gossip, history, and frank conversation. Its success is a testament to Oprah Winfrey’s genius as a broadcaster. What could have simply been a lurid tell-all or boring puff piece was actually a layered conversation with deeper implications for the way society views royalty. The fact that one broadcast can do so much in 2021 is proof that appointment television isn’t dead; it’s just evolving.

Still no matter how television has changed, Oprah Winfrey is still a titan of the art form. Oprah with Meghan and Harry made Sunday night TV great again. (Can The Oprah Show come back? Please?)

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal ideation, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24/7 at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Where to stream Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special