‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’ Reigns Supreme As Netflix’s Most Popular Series Of All Time

Shonda Rhimes has another hit television series under her belt as her new “Bridgerton” prequel series trumps the competition on Netflix.

Following its May 4th premiere, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story raked in 148.28 million in streaming hours and topped Netflix’s Top 10 chart, Variety reports. It reigned as the most viewed title in its first week of viewership.

Now, weeks later and the viewership hasn’t dropped! Last week, Queen Charlotte maintained its No. 1 spot as Netflix’s most-watched series after raking in another 158.68M hours viewed, Deadline reports. With more than 307M hours viewed since last week, Rhimes’ latest series is quickly becoming one of Netflix’s most popular series of all time.

Queen Charlotte closes out its first 28 days in another week, and so far, it’s gearing up for a top spot on Netflix’s most popular list alongside Inventing Anna, which sits at the No. 10 spot with 511M hours viewed in its first 28 days.

The only other show with those types of results is seasons 1 and 2 of Rhimes’ Bridgerton series. No one knows exactly how long Queen Charlotte will continue its dominance on Netflix, but it’s worth noting the series is only six hour-long episodes compared to the eight in Bridgerton.

This means the success of the prequel’s viewership thus far is fairly significant, considering all of the series that have made the all-time most popular list to date are at least eight episodes, including both seasons of Bridgerton. If Queen Charlotte does make the list, which it looks like it will, it will be a historical feat for Rhimes.

Fans of the Grey’s Anatomy creator recall her decision to leave ABC in 2020 after being denied an extra ticket to Disneyland. After ABC reps and an executive implied the Scandal creator should be happy with the tickets she had, Rhimes contacted her lawyer and told them to get her a deal with Netflix.

Now Rhimes is doing huge numbers on the streaming giant, and ABC execs are likely thinking about what could’ve been.

Me binge watching TV all this weekend: once again, Shonda Rhimes delivers. Season one has left me wanting more. Looking at biographies, although many characters were created for a Projects. The story accuracies around queen Charlotte was well done. pic.twitter.com/OJkLV2ljOQ

— Lisa the Book Nerd 📚 (@KarimaNovelist) May 22, 2023