The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's latest Netflix project is not enjoying the same success as their debut venture. And a royal commentator claims that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be 'hurt' by the response.
The couple both executive produced and appeared in the series 'Live to Lead', which takes a look at influential leaders throughout history and the ways they have changed the world. The Sussex's Netflix docuseries was a huge hit, beating The Crown in the ratings. But Harry (38) and Meghan's (41) new venture is not quite having the same impact.
Live to Lead, released on New Year's Eve, is the second part of the couple's multi-million pound deal with the streaming platform. The couple collaborated with the Mandela Foundation to tell inspirational stories of people such as Swedish activist Greta Thunberg's, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the late Nelson Mandela.
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The six part docuseries 'Harry & Meghan' becoming the UK's most-watched subscription TV series of 2022, even though it was released in the final month of the year. The first episode of their personal docuseries seen by an average of 4.5million people in seven days after its premiere, reports The Mirror.
The number beat the 2.8million who logged in to watch the first episode of The Crown's new series on the day of release - November 9, 2022- but half a million.
Harry & Meghan also beat other popular Netflix classics, including the last series of Ricky Gervais' After Life (4.1 million), supernatural thriller Stranger Things (3.9 million) and the period romance Bridgerton (3.4 million).
But the follow up show has yet to make an impact following its release.
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"It is one of the first tests commercially of their brand strategy to pull people in [with] personal drama and hope they stay for the philanthropy," a PR expert who goes by the social media alias Royal Tea claims.
"With little to no PR, a Saturday/holiday release, and no gossip to drive organic press, it didn’t even crack the Top 100 TV shows.
"The way it’s being handled feels like a throwaway project to fulfil a contract. Maybe they had to hit a certain number of Netflix projects by the end of this year. The one thing that is clear is that the Sussex name alone isn’t enough to drive views, which will hurt them."
The couple produced the series alongside Ben Browning and Chanel Pysnik for Archewell with Geoff Blackwell Ruth Hobday producing for Blackwell & Ruth and John Sloss for Cinetic.
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