Netflix and the Sussexes consciously uncouple

Very exciting news for the Daily Mail: Netflix is not moving forward with the Sussexes $100 million deal. 

How this information came to be is interesting: I first read about it in PEOPLE, which picked up the story from the Sun. I’m much more inclined to believe PEOPLE, which has been a friendly source for the Sussexes since they moved to the US, rather than the Sun, which is out of the UK. But PEOPLE wouldn’t run this and risk their relationship with Team Sussex unless they were sure it was true. Page Six has also followed up, saying more shows are coming but the deal is winding down.

Typically, these kinds of deals are reported in Deadline, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter or TVLine – trades that have deep inside contacts. The pipeline of information here is interesting and makes me think the Sussexes weren’t quite ready to have this story go public. 

Is this split expected? I think so. After a lot of press, With Love, Meghan didn’t crack the top 300. Yesterday, I wondered what the strategy would be to attract a larger audience for season two and it turns out, there is no strategy. 

Listening to Meghan on Emma Grede’s podcast (which I wrote about here), it’s clear that Meghan is passionate but consistently falls back on being inexperienced and learning as she goes. Sure, everyone is always learning in big roles. But at some point, you need to produce. And when does that point come for Meghan? Harry didn’t help much with Polo, which had abysmal ratings.

This is playing out a lot like their Spotify deal: a big idea, a big contract, big headlines, but the content doesn’t quite hit. The truth is their biggest hits were Spare andHarry & Meghan, the documentary. The Oprah interview is a pop culture moment. But separate their story from the British royal family and the interest in their work on the television side is not consistent. 

There might be curiosity and of course their die-hard fans, but that hasn’t sustained their projects. Meghan still has her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, and breaking down this whole deal would make for a fascinating season but that requires transparency, insightfulness and messiness, not the usual themes she leans on for public appearances.

Two things come into play here: all entertainment companies are looking for the bottom line and Netflix is no different. It’s not like the Sussexes were cut a $100 million check on the spot; these deals are built to be paid out in increments, over many years. So Netflix ran the numbers and it wasn’t worth it. Netflix doesn’t need a big name anymore; Netflix IS the big name. 

Second: making a good TV show, or a podcast, or a film is really really f-cking hard. (Goop’s TV show didn’t find an audience and look how much interest GP generates.) Over the last decade, we’ve been conditioned into thinking “content” is the same as quality programming and it’s not. 

Then there’s the As ever product line, which is still out of stock. It’s actually ridiculous to treat your paying customers like lemmings who need to line up for crepe mix. Netflix was also a partner in the product line (which is why some of the suppliers, like the tea company, overlapped with other Netflix IP) and that needs to be untangled, which certainly won’t help with getting products out the door. She was talking to Emma about fashion or beauty when the jam is still on backorder.

Of course, the unofficial official line here is “no hard feelings” but let me tell you, there are absolutely some hard feelings behind the scenes. In Emma’s podcast, Meghan consistently mentioned her relationship with Netflix’s CCO and how she can call up anyone at Netflix at any time to talk about her project. To pull an Oprah: did they stop taking Meghan’s calls, or did Meghan stop calling?

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