One of the most depressing parts of the royal gossip this week is how many Sussex-haters are smugly chanting “told ya so.” For years, those same people with their “Netflix sources” have claimed that “Netflix executives actually hate Prince Harry and Meghan” and that Netflix can’t wait to be out of the Sussex business. As People Magazine reported, the Sussexes’ Netflix deal will likely lapse in September without a renewal. There are other sources saying that the Sussexes are likely to get a “first look” deal, but again, this is ALL unnamed sourcing, both the good and the bad. Well, one of the “told ya so” people is Paula Froelich at NewsNation. To be fair, she really did report that Netflix was “done” with Meghan, but they would probably greenlight a third season of With Love, Meghan separately. Here’s Froelich’s latest column/gloat:
Readers of this column must be having a bit of deja vu. News “broke” in outlets like People and Page Six on Wednesday that Netflix isn’t renewing its $100 million dollar deal with Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle Sussex.
This, despite the fact that the same news actually broke exclusively in this column last March when I wrote the streamer was “done” with her, despite announcing an already filmed “second season” of her bland cookery and entertainment show, “With Love, Meghan.” As I wrote on March 7: “It’s necessary for a second season because Netflix has sunk so much money into as ever — and she can promote the products in the second season she couldn’t promote in this one due to all the trademark hassle,” the insider said. “But yeah, they’re still done — they’re trying to recoup the investment.”
Not that anyone should be shocked — Markle and Prince Harry haven’t had any success with their $100 million Netflix deal other than their 2022 docuseries “Harry & Meghan,” in which they spilled all the royal tea about Harry’s relatives. The other shows they created — “Heart of Invictus,” “Live to Lead” and Harry’s “Polo” — bombed.
And “With Love, Meghan” — panned as “vain”, “narcissistic” and “pointless” by critics and fans alike — was an expensive show to make. The show’s director, Mike Steed, worked with Anthony Bourdain on the CNN show “Parts Unknown,” and given the rent on the $5 million home she shot in, insiders surmise each episode’s cost ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I can’t wait for people to also claim my other scoop that Netflix will attempt to keep Markle around — at least for one more season of “With Love”— as part of a piecemeal deal so it can try once more to make her product line “As Ever” a commercial hit. As I wrote on June 5: “Markle will be granted a third season, regardless of viewership, as Netflix is invested in making her product line and show a success… It is the first time Netflix has fully produced a product line and, like QVC or Home Shopping Network, sees it as a new cash cow for them (doing shows and selling products from these shows that Netflix manufactures).”
But Markle is facing an uphill battle. Despite name recognition worldwide and mountains of press, her show didn’t even break the top 300 shows of the year for Netflix and her popularity ratings are dismal. Her agency, WME, is on the verge of dropping her, and she has been accused of using her royal title (something she is not supposed to do) to make money.
WME is on the verge of dropping Meghan? Yikes, that’s an interesting/horrible wrinkle. Granted, we’ve heard rumors about WME “having issues” with Meghan before, but those rumors never went anywhere. Just like the rumors about Netflix never went anywhere. The rumors never go anywhere until they do. A lot of you are convinced that this is simply the royal silly season, which happens every summer. But I’m seriously getting deja vu from the horrible four-month period in 2023, where the Spotify mess metastasized into a legitimate PR crisis, then the British media began a massive campaign to convince everyone that Harry and Meghan were on the verge of divorcing, and the Sussexes paid a lot of staffers to do and say nothing.
What else? “Brand and culture expert” Nick Ede actually defended the Sussexes in quotes to Hello Mag, saying: “The end of the current Netflix contract between Meghan and Harry means that they are now open to offers from other streamers they haven’t worked with, like Amazon Prime, so potentially they may want to court those other streamers. The first look deal is something that many channels offer the biggest stars and I’m sure Netflix won’t want to lose their relationship with the pair as they have brought viewers, subscribers and column inches to the platform, and although some of their shows have failed to ignite the interest they originally had, they are still box office when it comes to publicity.” Who even knows.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.
