Prince William: We Can End Homelessness is a two-part documentary set to air on ITV this week. But don’t you know, William didn’t make this navel-gazing documentary simply for British peasants. Of course not. Kensington Palace worked out a deal so that the doc will stream on Disney+. As you can imagine, the British media is leaning into a “rivalry” narrative, because Prince Harry has a contract with Netflix:
Prince William’s documentary about homelessness is to air on Disney+ ahead of his brother’s polo series on rival network Netflix. The Prince of Wales, 42, took part in the two-part ITV series to highlight his work in seeking to end homelessness.
The documentary, Prince William: We Can End Homelessness, will be broadcast in the UK on Wednesday and Thursday and will be available to international audiences on Disney+ from Friday Nov 1.
Meanwhile, the Duke of Sussex’s latest offering for Netflix, which is due for release in December, promises “an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look” at the sport of kings. Polo, a five-part series co-produced by Prince Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Productions, is the latest documentary to be released as part of the couple’s multimillion-pound deal with the streaming giant. While the Duke is not expected to feature heavily on screen, he was filmed playing the game in Florida in April in support of his charity, Sentebale.
Polo will be the fourth Netflix production released by the couple so far following Harry & Meghan, their six-part documentary series, Live to Lead, a series of pre-recorded interviews they introduced, and Heart of Invictus about the Duke’s Invictus Games.
More recently, Prince Harry appeared in an ITV documentary called Tabloids on Trial about his high-profile legal crusade against the media. Prince William has appeared less inclined to take part in television shows in recent years.
I forgot that Tabloids on Trial was on ITV. Prince Harry spoke on camera in that documentary, and it was specifically for a British audience. I don’t believe Tabloids on Trial aired anywhere in the US, on streaming or TV. As for the brothers’ “streaming wars”… um, Disney+ and Netflix don’t release much information about their streaming numbers, but I’m guessing that most people will not give a sh-t about William’s yammering about homelessness. I doubt that ITV will get high viewership for it either. People have memory-holed this, but William’s 2020 environmental documentary (Prince William: A World For Us All) bombed too. Princess Kate’s piano recital Christmas shows also get low viewership. The only way they can drive up interest in anything they do is by mentioning the Sussexes.
Photos courtesy of ITV, YouTube and Kensington Palace.