Is it possible Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are upset with how some of their content came out last year? Or maybe how it was perceived??
Obviously they would never come out and admit that — not while these deals are still fresh. But their actions may be enough to hint at least that they aren’t exactly happy with how their new media empire is going so far…
Variety reported over the weekend that a couple execs over at Archewell are being let go — or, we should say, their contracts are being allowed to expire.
First, there’s Ben Browning. As the head of internal content, the Oscar-winner served as the executive producer of both the Netflix docuseries AND the Duchess of Sussex’s podcast. Both seem to be hits from the outside. Harry and Meghan was a hugely popular show with tons of views — but it wasn’t exactly well-liked critically. The first season holds a shockingly low 42% rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes — and an abysmal 18% audience average. Obviously this was always going to be one of those shows that got review-bombed by misogynists and racists who don’t even watch, but that’s still low for an audience score. That, we’d guess, is the kind of thing that might be really important to Harry and Meghan.
Per Variety, Browning’s deal is expiring and NOT being renewed. Does it mean they’re looking to shake things up? There’s more evidence…
Fara Taylor served as the marketing campaign lead on both Harry and Meghan and Archetypes AND on Harry’s memoir, Spare. And she’s dunzo, too, set to “transition out of her role later this year.”
As for Spare, well, it’s certainly gotten a lot of attention. But hey, with stories like that, how could it not? And that attention didn’t seem to us to be overall negative, more just intrigued, exactly what you want for a tell-all.
The marketing in particular for Harry and Meghan, however, could definitely be seen as a big failure. The trailers were criticized for use of faked or misleading footage for dramatic effect — something plenty of trailers do, but considering the Sussexes’ credibility is being challenged at every turn by royalists, it’s really something they should have made sure didn’t happen.
So is this the closest we’re going to get to Meghan and Harry saying they were wrong? That things aren’t going so Archewell after all? What do YOU think about these new developments??
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