ABC News is going big with coverage of Queen Elizabeth II‘s “Diamond Jubilee” this Spring. There will be two primetime specials in late May and early June, with “Good Morning America” originating from London that week.
For the first primetime special, Katie Couric will have an “exclusive” interview with Prince William and Prince Harry, who will talk about their grandmother The Queen. The 2-hour special will air Tuesday, May 29 at 9pmET/8pmCT
In addition, ABC has acquired the U.S. rights to “Concert For the Queen: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration,” which will include performances by Paul McCartney, Elton John and Tom Jones, among others. Couric will host that event as well in primetime on Tuesday, June 5.
Kind of a weird coincidence that ABC has an exclusive interview with the Princes, and also paid for the rights to the concert, right?
In fact, ABC says it has been working on securing an interview with Princes William and Harry for some time, and that acquiring the rights to the concert was not related to the interview.
That having been said, the Royal Family does seem to have a habit of giving exclusive interviews to U.S. TV news outlets whose parent companies pay up for entertainment programming associated with them. In 2010 Prince Charles gave an exclusive interview to NBC’s Brian Williams, an interviewthat NBC insists had nothing to do with the fact that it had just acquired the U.S. rights to “Harmony,” a film documenting and celebrating Charles’ environmental activism.