The wedding year of Prince William — heir to the throne — and long-time girlfriend Kate Middleton is shaping up to be the biggest TV event in a generation.
Even with no date set for the grand affair, network newsrooms are already planning and scheming their way to secure a share of the estimated 1 billion-plus viewers.
“Because of who he is, the fact that he used his mother’s ring, and everything that we have seen [the British royal family] live through for the past 30 years, I think there is going to be a very high level of viewer interest,” says Jim Murphy, executive producer of ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
The wedding of William’s parents — Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer — in 1981 was one of the most-watched events in history.
“I think this is going to be close to it,” Murphy tells The Post. “Maybe bigger.”
The media world is a much different place than it was when Charles and Diana became a worldwide hysteria 30 years ago.
For one thing, who knows how many people will not be watching on their TV sets but on portable devices like iPads and cell phones.
And the culture of celebrity — where every young actress teetering out of a nightclub at 3 a.m. is top of the news lists by breakfast — is also different.
Can the royals do it again and create another huge media event?
“I don’t think our country is fascinated with every single royal,” David Corvo, executive producer of NBC’s “Dateline” conceeded yesterday.
“But when they are articulate and glamorous and refreshing — even scandalous at times — we are very interested,” he said,
“People have burned into their memories those shots of William on his mother’s lap and on rides at Disney World when [he and his brother, Harry] were little,” Murphy says. “What they went through was something that the entire world followed.
“Now, to follow them to the next phase of their lives and find out who will become a princess and eventually a queen is something that people are simply fascinated with.”
While William’s proposal, which came last month in Kenya, was reportedly a surprise for the future princess (“I really didn’t expect it at all,” she says), the royals-watching world had been expecting the announcement for months.
The US networks have been scrambling for several weeks behind the scenes to cobble together specials on the royal romance to have ready when the time came.
CBS will air “The Early Show: Royal Engagement” live from outside Buckingham Palace today, while NBC has prepared a special edition of Dateline titled “William and Kate: A Royal Love Story” at 8:00 p.m.