Well, we can finally agree on one thing about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex: We may enjoy the drama, but we’re not buying the grift.
According to Decider, Meghan’s thought-to-be-highly-anticipated homemaking show on Netflix has turned out to be a “massive flop,” with the streaming series spending only six days in the streaming service’s top 10 just after release.
“Newly released streaming data from Netflix reveals that Meghan Markle’s home-and-hearth series failed to crack even the Top 300 most-watched shows for the first half of 2025,” Decider reported Saturday.
“Clocking in at No. 383, the show drew just 5.3 million global views, putting it on par with reruns of ‘Peaky Blinders’ Season 2, a 2007 season of ‘Gossip Girl,’ and a kids’ show called ‘Grizzly and the Lemmings.’”
The difference here, of course, is that “Peaky Blinders” is good; “Gossip Girl” is better than either “Suits” or “With Love, Meghan,” and I’m sure Grizzly and those lemmings are pretty decent for the kiddies. (Or for adults, if you have to choose between them and watching Meghan keep house.)
However, with all that competition, it’s worth noting that the celebrity royals of California have a $100 million deal with Netflix — and this was supposed to be the first breakout hit.
And if you think that 5.3 million views is good, consider “With Love, Meghan” and its views compared to other shows. “Adolescence,” the top performer during that period, managed 145 million views. Meanwhile, “The Residence” — a show that was canceled — drew 33 million views.
The show’s troubled production didn’t help matters, either. First came the revelation that the show, despite promising an “at home with Meghan,” wasn’t actually filmed at her home. Instead, she rented a home two miles away for the production of the show — a house that was worth less, it’s worth noting, although this is just relative in Montecito, California.
Have you watched any of Meghan’s Netflix show?
Then came news of a hilariously out-of-touch anecdote from one of the show’s guests, comedienne Mindy Kaling, who described the “practical” tips that Meghan gave for hosting children’s parties.
“I love cooking, but I’m really not good at entertaining. I don’t know anything about how you’re not supposed to use overhead lighting when people come over. You’re supposed to use little lamps,” Kaling said.
“But Meghan just knows how to do that stuff. For kids’ parties I usually just go to the party supply store and get paper things, which I don’t judge and neither does she,” Kaling added. “But it was fun to learn simple ways to do a homemade kids’ party.”
Like buying a lot of little lamps for a kids’ party. Right. Simple!
Anyhow, the show currently has a 36 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and the reviews have been equally scathing.
Take the U.K. Guardian, which awarded Meghan’s attempt to do a Martha Stewart impression one star out of five and called it “toe-curlingly unlovable TV.”
“Oh God, it’s toe-curling stuff, but hardly surprising. We all saw Meghan show Oprah her chicken coop. Her lifestyle brand was until very recently, called American Riviera Orchard, which I think was supposed to give off an Alice Waters idyll filmed by Nancy Meyers vibe, but sounded more like the sister takeaway to Chicken Cottage,” Chitra Ramaswamy wrote. “Anyway, she’s now renamed it As Ever. Frankly, WhatEver would be more on brand. Because what ‘With Love, Meghan’ vibrates with most is a vacuous, over styled joylessness.”
“When all is said and done, there is but one aspect of ‘With Love, Meghan’ on which we can all agree — her old beagle, Guy, is a real honey,” Ramaswamy added. When the one thing that you can praise is that the dog is adorable, there are problems.
Oh, but it gets better, if you like schadenfreude: “Prince Harry, however, fared worse. His documentary ‘Polo,’ a behind-the-scenes look at the elite sport, ranked No. 3,436 with just 500,000 views worldwide,” which is “on par with reruns of ‘He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe.’”
Do the math and that means that Netflix has thus far paid Harry and Meghan $17.24 per view of their shows. Remember when Spotify executive and podcaster Bill Simmons called the couple “the f***ing grifters” for getting a massive contract with the audio streaming giant and then producing one podcast where Meghan allegedly couldn’t even be present for the interviews she “did?”
At least Meghan had to show up for her Netflix show, but from all accounts — especially those numbers — the Sussexes are still grifting, and hard.
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