Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are getting terrible reviews for their Polo reality T.V. show – and it’s left a slew of Hollywood bigwigs scratching their heads trying to figure how they’re still making money off the streaming giant when so many other great shows are falling by the wayside, a source exclusively tells In Touch.
“How much money is too much money to spend on Harry and Meghan? That’s a tricky question, because Netflix has almost unlimited capital and has already thrown tens of millions of dollars at this couple,” says a streaming business insider of the messy situation.
The newest installment of the formerly-royal couple’s $100 million deal with the streaming giant, the five-part series Polo, was thrashed by viewers and reviewers alike, and even the heavily pro-Sussexes magazine The Cut published a scathing article titled: “Harry and Meghan’s Projects Can’t Stop Flopping.”
The apparent failure of Polo, on which both Harry, 40, and Meghan, 43, served as executive producers, continues the downward trend of fan interest in the couple’s branch-out, post-royal projects. But even amid waning interest in the jet-setting couple, the source says that, “The arbitrage for Netflix comes with all the press attention the Sussexes get, especially in England and the U.S., which are two of Netflix’s biggest markets.”
While their name recognition alone makes it unlikely the two will lose their good favor with the streaming service over this most recent embarrassment, “Polo is shaping up to be one of the most disliked streaming shows of the year,” the source says, adding that even though the sport of polo may be close to Harry’s heart, as he grew up playing it as a young prince, it just didn’t resonate with most viewers struggling to pay their bills, which “seems to underline how out-of-touch Harry and Meghan compared to your typical Netflix subscriber.”
Social media users lambasted the production as “cheesy” and “cringe,” while U.K. outlet The Guardian called it an “unintentionally hilarious” profile of “the world’s stupidest sport.” Echoing the general sentiment about the series, one user wrote, “Who is seriously going to watch these ‘elite’ clueless people playing polo. This is horrifically BAD.”
As anyone can see, “There’s not a lot of sympathy for them,” the source adds, but “even among the professionals in the T.V. business, they see their mostly pointless Netflix shows as taking opportunities away from creators and talent who are T.V. professionals with legitimately strong ideas.”
The insider argues this recent flop, “puts them in a dangerous spot, because they still have yet to deliver a rock-solid hit for Netflix that wins over their critics.”
“We’ll see next year how many more chances they really get, but the critics have spoken and nobody is impressed. If they want to keep making television, they need to tackle a subject matter that’s relevant and they need to make the project actually entertaining.”
“It’s a lot easier said than done, but if they can’t pull that off, it’s only going to marginalize them further from the Hollywood community.”
