Nielsen has released its Weekly Streaming Top 10, and Netflix might want to think about holding onto Meghan Markle.
Recently, the streamer balked at paying her and Prince Harry for the remainder of their contract unless the two come up with more projects for Netflix to air. However, like director Jean-Luc Godard before her, Markle’s early work remains popular enough to sustain her legacy. Or at least that’s what this week’s numbers say.
Although Marklet had acted previously in several projects — including Get Him to the Greek, Remember Me, and Horrible Bosses — the USA series Suits is what most people consider her big break.
The American legal drama launched on the USA Network in 2011. The series lasted nine full seasons, ending in 2019. Markle starred as ambitious paralegal-turned-lawyer Rachel Zane. She stayed with the show for seven seasons, around which time she presumably listened to The Clash’s “London Calling” and thought those guys were really on to something.
Per Deadline, the series released on June 17 on Netflix and Peacock. Since Nielsen is always a few weeks behind in reporting its numbers, the company revealed Tuesday that Suits led the weekly streaming charts when it became available, scoring a number-one spot with 2.3 billion minutes viewed.
And get this: Black Mirror, helped along by its new season, was up 14% from last week’s report but still only scored 1.5 billion minutes. It now sits ingloriously at number 2.
According to Neilsen, almost half of Suits‘ minutes viewed were attributable to Season 1, so people aren’t exactly jumping around the seasons to see Markle’s different hairstyles. This is the first time in almost four months that any title — let alone an old USA show that your grandma used to watch alongside Burn Notice — broke the threshold of 2 billion minutes.
None of this may be related to Markle. But what else would trigger these preposterous numbers? (It’s no slight on the quality of the series, either. It fluctuates from a B to a B minus for us.)
To support our argument, Markle and Prince Harry’s self-produced documentary netted 2.4 million views on the day of its premiere, so it was unquestionably a success for the streamer. And Netflix itself reported Suits as a big winner in their Global Top 10 for Television the week it dropped.
So, it’s pretty safe to say that viewers are obsessed with Meghan and Harry. But so far, that hasn’t convinced Netflix to pay out the rest of their contract: The streamer reportedly has only paid the couple half of their agreed-upon $103 million. Yet, sources say the agreement stipulates that the duo must produce additional “content of real interest.”
So far, Harry has created another series titled Heart of Invictus that is set to release in August. However, Markle’s animated series, Pearl, was recently nixed by Netflix to cut costs.
We eagerly anticipate Markle ringing up Netflix and lobbying for the full amount anyway, probably by saying something along the lines of: “Come on, Horrible Bosses is doing great business for you.”