Bridgerton Season 2 Was Watched For 2.5 Billion Minutes Its First Week
Bridgerton season 2 debuts at the top of Nielsen's streaming charts, being viewed by audiences for over 2.5 billion minutes in its first week. The Shonda Rhimes-produced romantic period drama is adapted from Julia Quinn's series of novels. The most recent season premiered on Netflix on March 25, 2022.
After Bridgerton season 1 centered on Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and the Duke of Hastings' (Regé-Jean Page) budding romance and betrothal, season 2 switches focus to eldest Bridgerton son Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and his quest for romance. The current Viscount and head of the family is caught between two new characters, sisters Kate (Simone Ashley) and Edwina (Charithra Chandran) Sharma. After season 1 became Netflix's most-watched English language premiere at the time of its release in December 2020, Bridgerton season 2 managed to surpass its own record and become the streaming service's currently most watched title. It has now been revealed that the series also managed to outperform the competition from other services upon its debut.
As reported by Deadline, Nielsen places the new season at the top of its streaming charts. In the week of March 21-27, Bridgerton season 2 debuted at number one on its SVOD charts, achieving double the numbers of second place holder The Adam Project, being watched for 2,547 billion minutes across its debut week. The Ryan Reynolds-led Netflix time-travel action movie achieved 1.19 billion minutes viewed in the same period, followed by Netflix's Is It Cake? and Turning Red on Disney+ in the third and fourth places respectively.
As one of the streaming services' most successful titles, Netflix had already guaranteed Bridgerton's continued presence on its platform long before season 2 released. Following the successful season 1, Netflix renewed Bridgerton for seasons 3 and 4 in April 2021. While the series will continue to adapt Quinn's novels, those behind Bridgerton have left themselves room to take liberties with the source material. Rhimes has teased that while the Netflix series will adapt each of the Bridgerton siblings' romances, the show may choose to deviate from the order in which each story appeared throughout the novels.
Bridgerton earned its place among Netflix's most beloved original programming upon its initial release, and season 2's success has helped prove that audiences are still invested in the series. While the streaming service has had to grapple with the competition from competitors like Disney+ and HBO Max, Bridgerton's impressive viewership numbers for its first week prove the platform is still capable of holding its own. With the series' stars already teasing Bridgerton's future stories, viewers are sure to return for seasons 3 and 4.
Source: Deadline