Meghan Markle’s Netflix cooking show is known among less than half of U.S. adults and liked by 19 percent of the population, according to polling.
Market research agency YouGov has begun collecting regular polling data on With Love, Meghan, the lifestyle series that debuted in March.
The data so far published shows 43 percent of people had heard of the show, 19 percent liked it and 11 percent disliked it. That gives a net approval rating of plus eight.
COURTESY OF NETFLIX
Why It Matters
Meghan and Prince Harry‘s Netflix contract is due to expire in September and has not yet been renegotiated, with The Sun and People reporting the streaming platform does not plan to renew it.
However, Netflix remains an equity partner in Meghan’s lifestyle online shop As Ever, which is linked to With Love. That means it takes a cut of Meghan’s profits and the more successful she is the more money it makes.
There are, therefore, still major questions about whether Netflix will actually cut ties with the Sussexes or simply remold the relationship in a new way.
The polling data does suggest With Love has been underperforming compared to the mega deal the Sussexes signed in September 2020, reportedly worth $100 million.
What to Know
YouGov keeps ongoing rankings of scores of TV shows and places With Love in 713th place, one spot ahead of Dragon Ball Daima and one behind I Am Jazz.
The top three shows were Sesame Street, Jeopardy! and The Simpsons, while Suits, the show that gave Meghan her big break, stood in 274th place.
According to the data, 76 percent of people had heard of Suits while 33 liked it and 13 percent disliked it.
With Love, Meghan premiered on March 4 with eight episodes, offering not only recipes, but also tips on party planning, hosting and an insight into Meghan’s celebrity friends.
Actors Mindy Kaling and Abigail Spencer, Meghan’s co-star from Suits, were among the guests alongside professional chefs who helped to coach the duchess, like Roy Choi and Alice Waters.
Meghan aimed for a soft, warm tone and a few days after launch noted the calming nature of the sound design by posting a clip on Instagram with the message: “Oh, how I love ASMR!”
The show made far more of a splash than some of Harry and Meghan’s other Netflix offerings, including the documentaries Polo and Heart of Invictus.
However, many of the reviews were scathing, including in entertainment news website Vulture: “With Love, Meghan is an utterly deranged bizarro world voyage into the center of nothing, a fantastical monument to the captivating power of watching one woman decorate a cake with her makeup artist while communicating solely through throw-pillow adages about joy and hospitality.”
However, Netflix chief executive Ted Sarandos backed Meghan weeks after release despite the tough reviews, citing a rash of product sales after the couple’s original 2022 biopic Harry & Meghan.
“I think Meghan is underestimated in terms of her influence on culture,” he said.
“When we dropped the trailer for the Harry & Meghan doc series, everything on-screen was dissected in the press for days.
“The shoes she was wearing sold out all over the world. The Hermès blanket that was on the chair behind her sold out everywhere in the world. People are fascinated with Meghan Markle. She and Harry are overly dismissed.”
YouGov Ratings
The polling on With Love, Meghan, is part of YouGov Ratings which uses a different methodology to most one-off surveys.
They collect data daily on thousands of public figures, companies and brands in order to provide quarterly ratings.
With Love only debuted in March, meaning this is the first batch of data YouGov Ratings has published on the show.
“We collect data for YouGov Ratings each and every day, and it’s updated every Monday,” the pollster’s website says. “The data we collect accumulates and every quarter we update the website with the data collected over the past 90 days.”
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III and Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We’d love to hear from you.