• by Wayne Friedman , March 8, 2021

CBS' two-hour special “Oprah with Meghan and Harry”  earned 17.1 million Nielsen-measured viewers.

That's the largest prime-time entertainment special in the current TV season.

CBS pulled in an estimated $5.6 million from the show, according to iSpot.tv. CBS aired some 177 promotional spots to tout the effort, which had a total media value of $2.97 million, coming almost entirely from on-air promo placement on CBS, as well as some estimated off-network TV spend.

By way of comparison, CBS’ biggest single TV series entertainment episode this season came with the first episode of “The Equalizer,” running February 7 and earning 20.4 million viewers. The episode garnered a high value placement coming right after the Super Bowl, which pulled in 91.6 million traditional linear TV viewers.

CBS also says the Oprah special was the network's most-live-streamed event outside of the NFL and Super Bowl Sunday this season.