Yahoo Finance entertainment reporter Allie Canal breaks down the latest data from Netflix showing that the new season 2 of Bridgerton has climbed to No. 1 on the Top 10 list.
Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] – Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Live. We’re talking the Battle of the Boxes, streaming boxes that is, to see what’s been happening with streaming services, especially after Apple’s historic win at the Oscars over the weekend. For more on that, let’s bring in our entertainment reporter, Yahoo Finance’s Alexandra Canal with more. Ali, what can you tell us? ALEXANDRA CANAL: Hi, Richelle. Well, Apple might have won big at the Oscars. But Netflix has “Bridgerton.” And that series is doing so well. It debuted on Friday. And in just one weekend, it has climbed its way to the very top of Netflix’s competitive top 10 list. According to the company’s latest viewing report, subscribers watched more than 193 million hours of the series within its first three days on the platform. We really shouldn’t be surprised, though, since “Bridgerton” season one remains the second most watched show in Netflix’s history, right behind “Squid Game,” with a total of 82 million accounts reported to have seen at least a portion of the show within its first four weeks, with 625 million hours watched. Now, a caveat there is that Netflix counts a viewer as someone who watches at least two minutes of a piece of content. But judging off the numbers that we already got from “Bridgerton” season two, I think there’s a good shot that this new season could surpass its predecessor. And I also got some social media data that shows that the chatter around “Bridgerton” season two has already been skyrocketing. According to data from analytics company Hootsuite, total online mentions related to “Bridgerton” season one, which debuted December 25, 2020, totalled more than 261,000 between November 2 and December 28 of that same year. But if you flash forward to today, you’ll see that mentions for season two totaled more than 830,000 between February 14 and March 28, 2020. And that represents a 218% increase compared to season one. So incredibly high social media engagement. And I think people are just going to continue to watch this over time. And obviously, we’re already seeing those sky high numbers trickle in. – And as you mentioned, there was already a high bar from the first season, which at the time was– was their highest– their highest rated show. But Shonda Rhimes, the producer of “Bridgerton,” Netflix paid her top dollar to steal her away from ABC. It does seem to be worth it, though, as “Bridgerton” is not only– is not the only breakout hit from Miss Rhimes, right? ALEXANDRA CANAL: No. And I’m calling this the Shonda Rhimes effect because that woman, she knows how to create and produce some super smash hits. In addition to “Bridgerton,” she’s also the brains behind “Inventing Anna.” And that’s the miniseries based on the life of con artists Anna Delvey. That has remained on Netflix’s top 10 list for seven weeks now since its meteoric rise back in February. You mentioned ABC. And for those of you that don’t know, Shonda Rhimes is the mastermind behind “Gray’s Anatomy,” “Scandal,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” among many other top TV shows. So in order to lure her to the streaming side of the business, Netflix how to give her a good deal. So back in 2017, Shonda Rhimes signed a reported $100 million, five-year deal. And then this past July, Rhimes signed a deal extension that will keep her on board for another five years. She reportedly scored a significant raise of $150 million. And that excludes bonuses. She gets bonuses that could balloon that deal value up to $400 million. And this is something that Netflix has prided itself on. The platform spent more than $17 billion on content production in 2021. They’re willing to go there with these giant deals. And it’s paid off because, in addition to Rhimes, they have other long-term contracts with other top creators, like the Duffer brothers, who are behind “Stranger Things,” and Ryan Murphy. So we will have more content coming out and more seasons for “Bridgerton” because it was renewed for seasons three and seasons four, which, Richelle, I know that you are very, very happy about because you’ve already been season two twice, which I think is incredibly impressive. – Absolutely. – Ali, going to jump in here. Brad here. “Bridgerton” fan as well. And I couldn’t stay away from the conversation. Naturally, when we think about Shonda and the powerhouse that she is, while you were mentioning ABC, she owned an entire day of the week over there on Thursdays. And so now it begs the question– ALEXANDRA CANAL: TGIF. – Exactly. TGIT, I think it was, right? ALEXANDRA CANAL: TGIT. – They had the play on it. And so with all of that in mind, Netflix has tried to see how they could drip content to have that recurring viewership. Is this something where you see they might potentially retest that strategy with some of the content from Shonda? ALEXANDRA CANAL: You know, that’s a really good point, Brad. I do think that’s something that we could see Netflix test. I think at the end of the day, Netflix knows that content is king. Out of all the streaming platforms, even though we didn’t see Netflix win all the awards at the Oscars, they have so much content that’s available for so many different types of viewers. There really is something for the whole family. And I think because they have someone like Shonda Rhimes, who can just hit that perfect note and get people on board and really create these bombshell productions, why not create something like that? Why not experiment with different types of channels? And I think as the streaming wars evolve, we’re going to see more experiments like that because, you know, we’ve already proven that this model works, that people want to watch streaming giants. So let’s see how we can play with it a little bit. So I’d be down for that. I love TGIT. It was amazing. I was a huge “Gray’s Anatomy” fan. I wrote fan fiction when I was younger about “Gray’s Anatomy.” And it’s all because of Shonda Rhimes. So thank you. Thank you, Sean. – Love it. Yahoo Finance’s entertainment reporter Ali Canal. Thank you so much for taking the time, Ali. Appreciate it. Everyone, minutes left in today’s trading session. We’re going to get you to the key levels to track heading into the close after the break.
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