Why the ‘Bridgerton’ Ratings Dip Isn’t Cause for Concern | Analysis

The fourth season of Netflix romance sensation “Bridgerton” debuted to a slightly less sparkly audience than last season. But that dip shouldn’t be cause for concern for the show, with the romance franchise too big to fail for the streaming giant.

“Bridgerton” Season 4 Part 1, which like Season 3 consisted of four episodes, debuted to 39.7 million views during the week of Jan. 26, bringing in over three times the viewership from its closest competitor, “His & Hers,” with 11 million views that week. The initial debut marked a 12% decrease from the audience brought in by Season 3 Part 1 during the same time period, though the second week narrowed the gap as Season 4 scored 23.4 million views, just 7.5% down from Season 3’s second week viewership. 

By the third week since Season 4’s release, the margin widened again, with the 9.4 million viewers dipping 19% from last season’s Week 3 performance. A comparison for Seasons 1 and 2 is difficult to make, with the first two installments dropping as binge releases, while the latest seasons embraced a two-part model. It should be noted that when Part 2 drops on Feb. 26, viewership will naturally slide down as Netflix’s measurement for views (total hours viewed divided by runtime) stretches to be divided by eight hour-long episodes rather than four.

While there’s always a chance Season 4 could gain on the previous installment with the Part 2 drop, the slight downtick is to be expected for ongoing shows, with “Bridgerton” taking over the cultural zeitgeist back in pandemic-era 2020. It’s a fate that has befallen even Netflix’s biggest shows. Just look at “Wednesday,” which wowed audiences with 252.1 million views in its first 91 days — becoming the streamer’s most-watched English-language TV series — but returned with less than half that viewership in a comparable time frame with Season 2 picking up 119.3 million views. 

The same goes for “Squid Game,” whose first season similarly marked the streamer’s biggest non-English TV show with 265.2 million cumulative views, while Season 2 and 3 progressively dipped with 192.6 million views and 145.8 million views, respectively. And even as “Stranger Things 4” was able to triumph over its previous seasons to become the most-watched installment thus far with 140.7 million views in its first 91 days, Season 5 hasn’t reached that level quite yet, with the installment hitting 130 million views thus far.

All that is to say that a gradual decrease in viewership is expected for long-running TV shows, especially those in their fourth season, as the shininess of the fandom rubs off ever so slightly. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule, with series like “Industry” or “Tell Me Lies” hitting their ratings stride in their third seasons, but for these big, tentpole series, it’s often hard to replicate that initial phenomenon. Given the viewership and value “Bridgerton” continues to bring in for Netflix, fans hoping to see each and every Bridgerton sibling find love in their own season shouldn’t sound the alarm bells.

Overall, “Bridgerton” Season 4 accounts for a massive audience for the streamer. Viewership during the second half of 2025 (between seasons) for the series’ three seasons and spinoff series “Queen Charlotte,” and its themed fireplace feature, totaled 27.6 million views, comparable to the 33.2 million views brought in by “Ginny & Georgia’s” three seasons, which was slightly inflated following the Season 3 drop in June.

With all this in mind, it makes sense why Netflix is still all-in on “Bridgerton.” The streamer already greenlit Seasons 5 and 6 back in May, a year after the debut of Season 3. While nothing is guaranteed, Netflix’s commitment to the series appears to be enough to propel “Bridgerton” through eight seasons, in alignment with Julia Quinn’s eight-book series, giving each Bridgerton sibling their own season-long love story.

The streamer’s commitment can also be seen in the continued merchandising for the franchise, which Netflix added onto this season with several collaborations in the beauty, fashion and home goods departments.

NBC’s Legendary February goes strong

As highlighted in last week’s ratings column, NBC is seeing nothing but wins across its Legendary February programming, with the Super Bowl scoring its second biggest audience to date with 124.9 million viewers and the Winter Olympics already capturing a streaming high on Friday, Feb. 6, thanks to the opening ceremony. NBC added another win this weekend as the NBA All-Star reached a 15-year viewership high with 8.8 million viewers, and we’ll see what other ratings milestones the network hits as the Olympics winds down.

“The Pitt” hits another milestone

The medical drama has been on a roll in its second season, with “The Pitt” outpacing its previous weekly high of 939 million streaming minutes during the week of Jan. 5 to reach 1.16 billion viewing minutes during the week of Jan. 12, marking the first time the series has surpassed 1 billion minutes in a week, according to Nielsen.

The milestone boosted “The Pitt” to take the No. 4 spot among original streaming series — behind “His & Hers,” “Landman” and “Stranger Things” — and land in the No. 5 spot on the overall streaming list.

“Predator: Badlands” scores strong streaming debut

After the theatrical debut for “Predator: Badlands,” which saw the movie score the highest opening and highest-grossing “Predator” film but struggled to draw a wider audience, it hit an impressive streaming debut as it became Hulu’s No. 1 film premiere since “Prey” with 9 million views globally in five days. Overall, the “Predator” franchise has tallied up 300 million hours streamed across Disney+ and Hulu.

ICYMI

• ABC’s Thursday drama lineup of “9-1-1,” “9-1-1: Nashville’” and “Grey’s Anatomy” scored season ratings highs with delayed viewing
• The standalone “Muppets Show” special charmed nearly 8 million viewers in 8 days across Disney+ and ABC
• “The Lincoln Lawyer” dethroned “Bridgerton” on Netflix’s top 10 list this week

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