The ratings are in for the first night of Prince William: We Can End Homelessness. According to Broadcast Now, Part 1 of the ITV documentary had a viewership of 1.5 million, “well behind 2.4 million slot average.” As in, ITV can usually put anything in that Wednesday timeslot and easily break 2 million viewers. But not when it’s an angry egg yammering about being keen to solve homelessness with hope. For some perspective (Broadcast Now cites these as comparison): Camilla’s Country Life in 2022 got 2 million viewers. Prince Harry’s January 2023 interview on ITV (when he was promoting Spare) got 4.7 million viewers. Gulp. Meanwhile, Newsweek is highlighting some of the terrible reviews:
Prince William’s campaign to end homelessness has spawned a TV documentary described by one reviewer as “dismal television.” Although the show, We Can End Homelessness, focuses on an indisputably good cause it got a rough ride in the media after it was broadcast on Wednesday, October 30, with many suggesting a contradiction bearing in mind his privilege and multiple homes. It all suggests William might have an uphill battle ahead of him as he works to carve out a legacy during his time as next in line to the throne.
Marianne Levy for i News was perhaps most scathing in her assessment, arguing the royal needed to grapple with the political causes behind rising levels of homelessness.
“For if homelessness in the UK is to end, we need to know why it is at an all-time high,” she wrote. “We need to know about cutbacks to social services, how the NHS is struggling to provide frontline care, the burden on GPs (general practitioners). We need to know about investment in and the building of social housing. Of these issues, and the many more that have contributed to the crisis William has announced his intention to solve, there was nothing. It made for dismal television.
“The contributors talked of hope, but what this documentary was missing was anger. William is clearly committed to his cause, but he simply cannot galvanise his audience at the ballot box, in the workplace, and in the wider social arena to fix this inhumane problem once and for all. As an hour of factual television that was supposed to prove it is possible to end homelessness, this documentary was an abject failure.”
Abject failure just about covers it, although I still have to admit that Jan Moir’s column in the Mail was probably the most scathing takedown I’ve seen of Baldy’s Big Keen Homeless Adventure. I’m sure the BAFTA president will find a way to give himself another BAFTA though, what do you want to bet?
Photos courtesy of ITV and Cover Images.
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- The Prince of Wales, known as the Duke of Rothesay when in Scotland, with Homewards Advocate David Duke (right) during a visit to Homewards in Aberdeen, for a ‘Thank You’ event for workers from across the city’s homelessness sector Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: Aberdeen, United Kingdom When: 19 Sep 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales during a visit to RAF Northolt to view the two new London Air Ambulance Charity helicopters. The charity has received two new H135 helicopters via the ‘Up Against Time’ fundraising appeal, which was launched in 2021 and raised a total of £16 million. Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 01 Oct 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales takes part in a round table discussion during a visit to Birtley Community Pool in Birtley, Tyne and Wear, to celebrate its reopening and highlight the importance of having access to swimming Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: Birtley, United Kingdom When: 02 Oct 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales during an event co-hosted by Bafta and the Royal African Society, at Bafta, in Piccadilly, London, to celebrate young creatives and showcase the importance of supporting young people in the film, games and television industries Featuring: William, Prince of Wales Where: London, United Kingdom When: 09 Oct 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
This is not a surprise at all to me. Who want to see a doc about the struggle of the unhoused helmed by a generationally wealthy white prince? Who? Especially one who insists on centering himself and not giving the solutions needed.
Work with the government to bring down rents and raise wages.
Work to get property he owns up to code for folks to live and rent out and build centers for those in need.
He’s such a wanker who is desperate for accolades that his brother gets. He doesn’t realize that Harry actually cares and is actually doing the work.
Disgraceful.
This was only a vanity project nothing more and it shows. People want nothing to do with Peg because his “projects” are empty of any helpful content.
sad. is there supposed to be a part two to this mess? they should just release it on youtube and call it a day. so embarrassing and disgraceful.
The monarchy’s embiggeners are going to be desperate to show William is a bigger success at making TV than Harry. I’m expecting all sorts of ridiculous tabloid shenanigans over the next few weeks to show how this boring show is a massive hit on Netflix and how H&M are beside themselves with jealousy and despair because William is now the most important and popular on Netflix.
“NETFLIX IS MINE HAROLD (and also Africa)”!!!1!1!! – – William (probably)
Netflix? This isn’t on Netflix. It’s on local brit teevee: ITV.
And they also gave bob iger of Disney+ an OBE in a quid pro quo so he wd agree to show it on that streamer.
Oooh, I thought it was coming to Netflix. Good luck on Disney+ 😆
I mean, who is supposed to be the audience?
I wonder… if it will also stream on BritBox? In the US, BritBox is a streaming service for BBC & ITV content. It’s mostly an archive of literally every murder mystery show ever produced, some old Shakespeare plays, and a couple of gardening shows, plus fawning royal content.
Yeah, it is confusing. Bc what’s the takeaway at the end? Are viewers supposed to want to donate money to Prince William who will then parcel it out to the homeless charities? Are they supposed to understand how they can help? Or is it just that PW is keen to help? Is that the only takeaway?
You’re exactly right that bully’s ultimate goal with this fakakta project is to get millions from the govt.
It’s just like that emergency services “umbrella” organization con job he did soon after covid. He’s talking abt forming an “umbrella” org with all these charities tht hv been providing temporary shelter to Britain’s destitute for a century, such as the Salvation Army and this Big Issue org etc.
The twitter bots were very keen to polish this particular turd, it’s all very embarrassing.
If you’re interesting in watching a well made, very moving documentary about homelessness, related factors, efforts to help, check out A Decent Home and Community First! A Home for the Homeless.
The first is about residents of a mobile home community who receive notices of eviction after the investors who own the land their homes sit on decide to prepare to sell it for possible development. It’s heartbreaking, but there are slices of hope as the situation spurs individuals to get more involved in local government and advocate for changes to protect the poor, low income and the fragiley housed.
The second is about people who didn’t just try to provide short term housing, but are focused on creating a community where low income folks and others can live, thrive and find a community of friends, support and purpose.
I came across both of the while watching my local PBS station (in the US) Thinking about that, its a good reminder to take some of money that used to fund my WaPo subscription and send it to PBS/NPR. They provide financial support and a platform for independent filmmakers tackling important subjects, as well as excellent journalism.
The Guardian were quite kind to him .
They probably feel a bit sorry for him to be honest , he really is quite pathetic .
I was wondering about the Guardian. Martina Hyde, where art thou, who can’t wait to write an entire column taking potshots at the Sussexes? Richard “Reporting Without Fear Or Favour” Palmer, newly of the Observer, where is your column about this?
Crickets…
The people who write for the Guardian are mostly from the same circle as the people that write for the other UK papers. Mostly middle class and privately educated. You can bet most of them are pro monarchy. Just because the Guardian sometimes produces some good investigative reporting on royal finances doesn’t mean the majority of the reporters wouldn’t be fawning if they actually met a royal. Don’t expect many negative opinion pieces about the working royals from the Guardian.
Curious if we will get the ratings from night 2 (which I imagine would be even worse) or if KP will muzzle ITV.
What was his first bafta for? Anyway everyone on this site called this a failure as soon as it was announced. I shall call him Prince Failure To Launch, FTL.
At least no one on sm is talking about it at all so when he needs embiggening from the press that can make shit up without the obvious contradictions.
The BAFTA was for his Keenshot Earthflop — best live event.
Let’s watch him angling for an Emmy next, seeing that this is streamed by Disney+.
After he got his BAFTA, he gave a nice job to the BAFTA CEO, if I remember correctly. It is all bs over there, Will, who is President of BAFTA, giving awards to himself. I am sure this one will get some too.
“William is clearly committed to his cause…” But it’s not clear that he’s committed, that’s why he can’t galvanize an audience. There’s no passion and there’s no indication that he’s done any real thinking about the subject. And if he wasn’t the Prince of Wales, no one would even air a film like this – they’d tell him to go back and figure out what he’s trying to say.
Pegs legacy is being lazy and spiteful. He should stop preaching and being patronizing
Look, I haven’t watched this latest cause of William’s. The teo things I’d like to say are:
It seems like having him there is not authentic. Huge, rich landowner, millionaire not giving away a big chunk of his fortune and time to this cause is no longer acceptible. It’s not what you say it’s what you do.
The feudalidm vibes: Rich aristocratice landowner taking care of yhe serf who are bound to the land. Ugh!
If you want yo end homelessness, a big part of effort has to go into the causes: addiction, mental health, low incomes, poverty after divorce, pensions, losing your job, education levels, sometimes an illness, natural disasters, etc. I don’t know how much time he spent on those topics, but if you don’t do something about the causes, you will be mopping up after a broken leaking water pipe.
It is not surprising that the William’s documentary on Homelessness is an abject failure according to Newsweek.
Like Kate, William is managed by a Committee of pr staff who brainstorm how to make their principals important. William and Kate picked project like Early Years and Homelessness thinking it is easy to make a difference . They produce TV documentaries and talk about these projects as their legacies before they have achieved anything substantial. They are putting the cart before the horse.
So Cammy beat him. I bet she is having a good laugh. Poor Willy’s problem is that he got it backwards. You do something to make a significant impact then you make the documentary.
Everything William touches flops, even footballs. He’s such a huge landowner with the Duchy of Cornwall, he could actually do good if he were a completely different person, you know, someone who actually cared and who actually knew how to get things done. Someone like Harry.
Didn’t they mock Harry’s ratings of ITV interview? The future King couldn’t even get half of it, wow. With all the support from all the national media over there, he can’t still succeed in anything he tries. It is sad.
The suggestion about some “contradiction” between his privilege and multiple homes and the cause he is supposedly fronting is too kind. TOB isn’t an expert on the causes of homelessness, and clearly doesn’t want to hear from people who are, or suggest measures that might actually help. He has no credibility, so why is his name in front of this? He should take a page out of Harry’s book – It’s not “Prince Harry: Heart of Invictus”, it’s just “Heart of Invictus”.
I think it is telling that he’d rather interview people experiencing homelessness on how he, William, can tell their f@cking stories so people will pay attention. It’s supposed to be a documentary, dude – turn the camera on someone else for a change and let them tell their story!
Camilla’s Country Life got more viewers??? wow.
I remember a year or two ago when this documentary was first mentioned and it was supposed to be a behind the scenes look at William’s working life with “unprecedented access” or some such nonsense. And honestly had it actually gone that route it might have done better.
But no one wants to watch a documentary with William walking around looking concerned, with or without a folder.
It sounds so BORING.
It is like Elon Musk spotlighting homelessness.
Billionaires highlighting poverty is weird.
As a landlord William is part of the problem of homelessness.
He’s going to be so mad about this that only another home will be able to soothe him.
This is just an empty PR project, put together to give the illusion of activity when nothing is actually happening – it’s truly embarrassing. And to have the arrogance to try and set yourself up as an “umbrella” over established charities like Centrepoint and Shelter (who are experts in the field, doing good work) – that is an insult to them, and I would love to know what they are saying about it behind closed doors.
Homelessness is a complex issue – far too complex for PW to get his tiny brain around, even before you factor in the political side. It beggars belief that this billionaire landlord with (at least) 4 large homes of his own comes swanning in claiming he can solve homelessness within 5 years when the likes of Centrepoint / Shelter have not managed to do this.
I think the real motivation behind this is that PW is under pressure to establish a “legacy”. Which Harry, Charles and Prince Philip had all done way before they were PW’s age (e.g. Invictus, Prince’s Trust, Duke of Edinburgh Scheme, etc.). And EarthShit doesn’t count because that is just a bog-standard programme for giving out other people’s money in the form of grants, there are many other projects like it.
I’m not surprised that a country that is on the verge of breaking point isn’t listening to an over-privileged idiot like ToB. The discourse surrounding politics is toxic enough. It’s a pity that the toxic British media continues to give cover to these abject failures we call our institutions. Willy needs to find a new hobby and fast.
I almost hope he does give himself another BAFTA, it is fun to laugh at. Peggy is so pathetic and desperate to one up his brother who is so far out of his League, but Peggy is too insulated and coddled he has yet to realize it.. love that the someone is giving him a dose of reality.
Lmfao at the Daily Fail readers furious that Will is going to ‘provide’ housing for immigrants.