[ad_1]
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story has debuted atop Netflix’s English TV list with 148.28 million hours viewed, making it the most-viewed title for the streamer this week and allowing it to reach the Top 10 in 91 countries. The big debut gives the company another huge hit right before its first appearance at upfront week on May 17, but Netflix’s shows don’t just become the talk of “the Ton” by accident.
Not unlike a royal worried about their line of succession, Queen Charlotte had a lot of expectations riding on it ahead of its May 4 Netflix debut.
The prequel miniseries is the first spinoff from creator Shonda Rhimes’ Bridgerton franchise. And with Bridgerton Season 1 and Season 2 combining for more than 1.2 billion hours viewed on the streamer, the platform was looking to continue that success and help expand the universe with its latest installment.
To ensure the series would find its dedicated audience, as well as bring in new viewers, Netflix rolled out the red carpet as soon as it could. According to Shelly Gillyard, vp of U.S. and Canada marketing at Netflix, campaign planning began 18 months before the premiere.
“We’re on set early trying to ideate, shooting content and assets,” Gillyard said, “So it starts from a very early, collective creative perspective, and trying to think about how we can launch this campaign globally because it is a title that warrants that type of global nature.”
Though Bridgerton historically hasn’t focused much attention on issues of race and diversity, Queen Charlotte takes those questions head on, with India Amarteifio portraying how Bridgerton’s Black queen fell for King George (Corey Mylchreest) and came to power.
Given the storyline, Gillyard told Adweek the streamer had the opportunity to tell a story that speaks specifically to Black women and diverse audiences, also allowing the opportunity to bring in younger viewers to the massive Bridgerton fanbase.
“We thought we had an opportunity to even broaden the fanbase with this, so we’ve been really excited,” Gillyard said.
Since music plays such a pivotal role in Bridgerton, with modern pop songs regularly receiving classical reimaginings, it became a crown jewel of the campaign.
