Netflix might be paying top dollar to keep Shonda Rhimes under an exclusive development deal, with the prolific producer renegotiating a new $150 million contract last summer, but it’s not as if she isn’t rewarding them with consistently bumper viewing figures.
Bridgerton was the first project under the arrangement, which went on to become the platform’s most-watched original series ever, although it’s since been dislodged by Squid Game. Rhimes’ second episodic effort for the streamer was Inventing Anna, which managed to end up as Netflix’s 5th most popular English-language original series of all-time.
Never one to rest on her laurels, the recent return of Bridgerton for a second season has been smashing records left, right, and center, with the period-set romantic drama rocketing straight into third place on the English-language charts after racking up 560 million hours viewed in the space of just 17 days.
By the time the dust settles on the standard 28-day metric used to measure the data, Bridgerton‘s sophomore run of episodes will have replaced the first at the very top of the list. Having a trio of entries in the all-time Top 5 is a remarkable achievement when you consider those are the only thee Rhimes-backed productions to have emerged so far, even if a little show called Stranger Things is poised to decimate everything in its path when it returns on May 27.
Rhimes is shaping up to be worth every penny that Netflix are paying her, then, so don’t be surprised if the two parties continue their mutually-beneficial arrangement for a very long time to come.