Netflix's Netflix signed a multi-year deal with Shonda Rhimes and her ShondaLand production company - one that reportedly cost the streaming giant $100 million. Not only was this a way of acquiring great content, it also served as a signal to industry that they were serious in their desire to acquire some of the best talent in the business.
It's clearly paid off. Netflix is traditionally reluctant to disclose details on the performance of their various films and TV shows, but co-CEO Ted Sarandos recently gave a look under the hood in a presentation at the Code Conference 2021. "It’s way too early to tell — you have to look back on this things over many years," he initially began, as though avoiding responding to questions about Rhimes, before revealing the deal will have already paid off with Bridgerton alone. The news was accompanied by data confirming Bridgerton season 1 had accumulated 625 million viewing hours over its first 28 days, contrasted with 582 million for Stranger Things season 3 and 541 for The Witcher season 1. In the short-term, then, Bridgerton has been even more of a hit than Stranger Things and The Witcher (although third-party analytics suggests this probably isn't the case in the long-term, with Stranger Things routinely identified as the most in-demand digital original worldwide).
Demand has been growing for period dramas over the last few years, as demonstrated by the success of Bridgerton appears to have been Netflix's biggest hit of all, performing on a scale that hasn't been seen before, and it may well simply have benefited from timing; the steamy period romance came out at the tail-end of a difficult year, just when viewers were eager to escape to a fantastical, fictionalized version of Regency London.
Although Bridgerton is inspired by the popular novels of Julia Quinn, Shonda Rhimes and her team have made the show their own. They've taken particular care to introduce an element of diversity into British history, adding in a major plot involving Queen Charlotte - who may well have been Britain's first Black Queen. This allowed Bridgerton to put together an impressive diverse cast including Regé-Jean Page as Simon Bassett, Adjoa Andoh as Lady Danbury, and of course Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte - destined to star in her own spinoff, and clearly that diversity really does work. What's more, although this is a period drama, it also feels remarkably contemporary; there's a sharp edge to Bridgerton's commentary on race, while string quartets played the music of Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift. This approach widens the number of potential viewers Bridgerton can appeal to massively, because the Netflix series doesn't properly fit in any one genre-box.
There is one final factor to consider, though, that Netflix do need to ; marketing. The streaming giant has often been criticized for failing to market its shows, but - perhaps in part because the deal with Shonda Rhimes was so expensive - Netflix put a lot of effort into marketing Bridgerton (and season 2 looks to follow that trend). Social media was awash with interviews, discussions of the fashion and music, behind-the-scenes shots, and the like, meaning people who were hooked to Bridgerton could easily spend plenty of time discussing it - especially on Facebook. This social media chatter was likely even more important during the pandemic, when people weren't having as many face-to-face conversations so it could potentially be more difficult to build up positive word-of-mouth. Netflix need to learn that marketing works, with Bridgerton proving the point.