Prince Charles Will Make His Reality TV Debut Next Week

Prince Charles is ready for his close-up! Next week, he’s set to make a rather striking cameo on the ITV show Keeping Up With the Aristocrats, a new hit show in England that the Guardian called “ludicrous” and compared to a real-life Downton Abbey. Which, obviously, means they should start streaming it in the U.S. as quickly as possible. 

The show follows three families of aristocrats or aristocrat-aligned rich people as they face marital problems, live in sprawling castles, and attend weird aristocrat-centric events that probably made sense when they started several hundred years ago but now are kind of puzzling to a foreign audience. And it is precisely this kind of event that our heroes rub elbows with the Prince of Wales himself. 

The scene, which the Daily Mail got an exclusive clip of (watch it here), takes place at Harrogate’s The Great Yorkshire Show in July 2021. If you don’t know what the Great Yorkshire Show is, its website describes it as an “iconic four-day event” and “one of the biggest agricultural events on the English calendar.” Which makes it sound like a state fair? But then why are royals there? 

Anyway, two of the show’s stars, Lord Gerald Fitzalan Howard, son of the 17th Duke of Norfolk, and his wife Lady Emma, apparently attended the event with the intention of buying some livestock—which, again, why—and ran into Prince Charles. Charles, for his part, looked extra dapper at the event wearing a beige suit and sunglasses. The two men were both admiring a cow, which was for sale for the cost of £1,000. Per the publication:

“Donning a pair of trendy tortoise-shell sunglasses, Charles begins, 'Are you trying to buy?' before Gerald replies, 'I am sir, I am. Course I am.'  Referring to breeds of cattle, which sell for up to £1,000 each, Queen Elizabeth II's son says: 'Shorthorn. Are you a Shorthorn man?' with a nervous Gerald quipping: 'I'm trying to be a Longhorn man. I'm Shorthorn, Longhorn, not quite sure.'”

The two then discuss Lord Howard’s intention to start a herd of his own at his home nearby, and Charles says of the cows, “Well done. But they're wonderful because they just get on with it on their own.” 

So, okay yes, Prince Charles’s reality TV debut is a short exchange about cattle, about which the Prince is apparently very knowledgeable. But really, is that any more bland than the cumulative years of film dedicated to watching the Kardashians talk about texting while eating beautiful salads? To each their own reality show.