Lady Whistledown has her headline for tomorrow. If there were televisions and iPads that existed during the Regency, it is.
Netflix tweeted Monday night Bridgerton – the adaptation of Julia Quinn’s best-selling novels, created for TV by Chris Van Dusen and produced by Shonda Rhimes’ Shondaland – is expected to be taken by more than 63 million households * in the first four weeks of release *. If true, it would be the lush and rrrribald! period drama Netflix’s fifth biggest * original series to date (behind The Witcher Season 1, Stranger things Season 3, Money laundering Part 4 and Tiger King).
Link it to the 44 million households that will follow Robert Rodriguez’s example We can be heroes film (which has just received a sequel) and Netflix claims that it (without independent verification, it should be noted) is its “biggest viewing week between Christmas and New Year ever.”
*The numbers Netflix reports are based on subscribers who have watched at least two minutes of a piece of content.
The undeniable critical success and pop culture buzz of Bridgerton, which debuts eight episodes on Christmas Day, comes on the heels of Netflix declaring a decisive chess mat with its highly acclaimed Thanksgiving release, The Queen’s Gambit, selected by 62 million households in the first 28 days, limiting the streaming giant’s “largest limited series to date.”