Shonda Rhimes has spoken about how she views Bridgerton more as a “workplace drama” than a romance, and why the hit Netflix adaptation needs to have a finite end point.
Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, where the television producer and screenwriter received the inaugural fellowship, Rhimes shared that she began reading the first book in the Bridgerton series while sick after finding it in her hotel room, and then immediately went out and bought the entire series.
“I had a lot of disdain for romance novels” she told Mishal Husain at the festival. “But I read this book, and it was so good that I got out of bed sick, went to the bookstore, bought the rest of the books and came back and read them.”
The Duke and I, the first in the series of eight Regency romance novels by Julia Quinn, was released in 2000. It followed the story of the eldest daughter and fourth Bridgerton sibling, Daphne, and her romance with the Duke of Hastings Simon Basset.
The series follows the eight siblings of the influential Bridgerton family as they navigate high society in London and look for love and adventure.
“But I didn’t see it as a romance novel. To me, Bridgerton is a workplace drama. The women have no power in any other areas of their lives.
“The only place they have power is in who they marry and how they marry, and that marriage is a workplace, and those are colleagues coming together to make sure that their faiths and futures are sealed in a way that is positive for them. Now I know that’s not how you think of it, but that’s how I thought of it.
“More importantly, I could see myself in them. If a black woman in 21st century America can see herself in regency England, it’s a good story.”
To a question on how many seasons the show will run for, Rhimes answered: “Exactly eight.”
“The Bridgerton series is eight children. Violet Bridgerton and all eight of her children married. So every season is a child,” Rhimes said, adding however, that there is “a possibility for spin-offs”.
The book series was adapted into a television series for Netflix by Rhimes’ Shondaland, with the first season releasing in 2020.
Unlike some period dramas, Bridgerton features a racially diverse cast of actors, including Regé-Jean Page as Simon, Simone Ashley as season two romantic lead Kathani Sharma, Adjoa Andoh as Lady Agatha Danbury, and Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte.
The casting is influenced by a theory supported by some historians that the real-life Queen Charlotte was mixed-race and the series itself is set in an alternative London Regency era where George III granted many people of African descent aristocratic titles due to the shared heritage of his wife.
When the series first dropped on Netflix, it broke records by becoming the most-watched original series by the streamer at the time. Within the first 28 days of its release, at least 82 million member accounts viewed the show, according to Netflix data.
When the second season premiered in April 2022, it racked up 193 million hours of viewing time on Netflix in only three days.
The third season, released in 2024 and starring Nicola Coughlan, set a new record for Netflix. In the first four days of its release, it clocked up 45.05 million views, according to Netflix’s own figures – around double the previous season.
