Puck has had an ax to grind with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for a while, so I always dread whenever the site name-checks Harry and Meghan for any reason. A few days ago, Puck included them within a larger story about “The Best and Worst Deals of Peak TV.” The point of this piece is that for the past six years or so, streamers have made some horrible decisions when it comes to cutting big checks and hoping that some good shows will come out of it. Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Amazon deal got name-checked, as did JJ Abrams, David Benioff & D.B. Weiss and Seth MacFarlane. All of those people got sweetheart nine-figure deals and they have provided very little for it. Here’s the section which mentions the Sussexes:
Higher Ground and Archwell (Netflix)
Raise your hand if you haven’t worked briefly at the Obamas’ Higher Ground production company? The executive turnover and slow output have frustrated Netflix, even if the deal delivered the hit feature Leave the World Behind and several docs that Higher Ground is kissed into. On the TV side, the jury is still out on Will Forte’s Irish comedy-thriller Bodkin, while animated preschool show Ada Twist ran for four seasons. A sign of displeasure: Netflix let go of its exclusivity when it renewed the Obamas in June at a reduced first-look rate. The streamer is not expected to renew its five-year, $100 million deal signed in 2020 with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Meghan’s passion project, the animated kids show Pearl, has already been canceled, and the unscripted cooking and polo offerings didn’t connect the way the royal couple’s Harry & Meghan did.
Netflix hasn’t even premiered Meghan’s cooking show and the polo show is still being developed (???) or it’s still filming. What are they even talking about? “Didn’t connect” – we haven’t seen it! Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are conversations at Netflix about whether or not to renew Harry and Meghan’s contract. But they’ll be fine either way, plus it feels like Netflix is actually pretty happy with the Sussexes in general and Netflix is making longer-term plans with Archewell. They’ve created more for Netflix than most of the other people Netflix has put under contract.
Photos courtesy of Netflix.
