‘Bridgerton’ Dethroned In Netflix’s Top 10 List By A New Show

I was wondering what show could possibly be strong enough to dethrone Bridgerton season 2 from the #1 spot in Netflix’s top 10 list, and I can’t say I predicted this one.

After a long while on top, setting English language viewing records for Netflix and outpacing everything minus Money Heist and Squid Game, Bridgerton season 2 has indeed dropped to #2, losing out to of all things, a new romance-based Netflix reality show, The Ultimatum.

The show, hosted by the Love is Blind duo Nick and Vanessa Lachey, is another weird concept aiming to pair different couples together. The show features a number of “contestants” that ended their last relationship when one of the pair wanted to get married and the other didn’t.

Here, the idea is that the men and women are on one side of that or the other. Either they were the ones who wanted to get married or the ones that didn’t. And now they’re trying to match up with each other and do a Love is Blind style “trial marriage” by finding new partners and living together. I’m not sure if they’re meant to actually walk down the altar by the end of this exactly like Love is Blind.

All the episodes of The Ultimatum are not out yet. The show has released eight so far, and the final two, the finale and reunion, are coming out on April 13. These reality shows are where Netflix breaks its rules in order to not ruin the surprise endings of the “competition” style shows, and more and more we are seeing cheap, often not terribly good reality programming dominating Netflix’s top 10 charts, as they learn what networks did two decades ago, that reality shows are easy to make, inexpensive and a lot of people will watch them. The Ultimatum has already been renewed for season 2, and is said to be an LGBTQ-focused season.

As for Bridgerton, it lasted a long time at number one, but not long enough to break any records on that front, given that we’ve had other shows last for weeks at a time. But the way viewing patterns seem to break for Bridgerton is that it was a heavily binged show so there are fewer people who still even need to be watching now. And unlike Squid Game, where word of mouth traveled slowly, Bridgerton is already massively popular so everyone was ready to dive into season 2 the first weekend it aired, and finish it up on the second if they hadn’t.

Bridgerton is likely to be greenlit by Netflix indefinitely, not just for season 3, but perhaps all the way through all eight books that currently exist as source material. It’s done so well it’s a rare show on Netflix that simply does not have to worry about renewal at all for the indefinite future. Something almost no other program can say on the service. Maybe The Witcher? There aren’t many.

We’ll see how long The Ultimatum lasts on top. I’d predict not too long, but we’ll see.

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