Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story Anointed With Top Spot In Nielsen Streaming Chart Debut

Hail to the queen.

Netflix made a striking deal with showrunner Shonda Rhimes, who left ABC after creating numerous hit series, including "Grey's Anatomy." Going forward, Rhimes would make content for the streaming platform, and arguably, her biggest hit for Netflix has been the hugely popular "Bridgerton." Based on the books, the romantic historical fiction series has drawn billions of views of watch time, and it's clear people will take more "Bridgerton" any way they can get it.

On May 4, the spinoff series, "Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story," debuted, instantly cracking into the platform's Top 10 Series. And nearly a month after the six episodes came out, the show's still making waves. In its first week of eligibility, the show has dethroned Netflix's "The Diplomat" to reach the top of Neilsen's U.S. ratings, accumulating 1.9 billion minutes viewed in a single week. Nothing else really came close, so it just goes to show how it's Shonda Rhimes' world; we're all just living in it.

1.9 billion minutes of watch time is nothing to sneeze at, and it's all the more impressive, considering "Queen Charlotte" only has six episodes for people to watch. For context, the second-place winner of the last week from Nielsen's chart is another series — "Firefly Lane." Nielsen's considers every single episode when compiling this list, and even though Season 2, Part 2 of "Firefly Lane" only has seven episodes, there are 26 episodes total for the ranker to look at. Even with more episodes, the show only acquired 1.25 billion minutes of watch time, meaning "Queen Charlotte" was the clear winner by a mile. 

"Sweet Tooth" came in third with 1.1 billion minutes across 16 episodes total, while "Ted Lasso" on Apple TV+ earned 715 million minutes of watch time across its 30 total episodes. Rounding out the top five is the former champ, "The Diplomat," which garnered 711 million minutes in its eight episodes. 

Notably absent from the list is Amazon's incredibly expensive "Citadel," which was in its second week of eligibility. However, it's worth noting that Nielsen only looks at viewership in the United States, and Amazon has said from the get-go that "Citadel" is for a more international audience. Regardless, with these numbers, don't expect Netflix to abdicate the "Bridgerton" universe any time soon.