Critics just served “With Love, Meghan” its harshest review yet—and Netflix is taking notes. Season 2 of Meghan Markle’s lifestyle series crashed to a devastating 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, down from an already modest 33-38% for Season 1. The culinary catastrophe signals more than bad television; it marks Netflix’s broader retreat from guaranteed celebrity content toward performance-driven partnerships.
The numbers tell a brutal story. Audience scores plummeted to 27%, while viewership remained anemic despite A-list guests including Chrissy Teigen, Tan France, and chef José Andrés. Season 1’s 5.3 million global viewers never propelled the show into Netflix’s Top 300 most-watched programs for 2025’s first half. Season 2 failed to crack the Top 10 in either the US or UK markets.
Critics Deliver Scathing Verdicts
Professional critics delivered brutal assessments following the August 26, 2025 premiere. The Guardian called Season 2 “so painfully contrived that it’s genuinely fascinating,” while The Times dismissed it as “a series in search of a meaning, fronted by a woman in need of some cash.” Even viewer reviews turned savage, with one IMDB user describing the experience as “eye-wateringly awful… you peer at it through your fingers over your face, while your toes independently curl.”
Despite featuring household names like Chrissy Teigen and chef José Andrés, the celebrity guest strategy backfired. Critics consistently noted Markle’s apparent inexperience with basic cooking techniques. This created an authenticity gap that no amount of star power could bridge.
Netflix Restructures Celebrity Gamble
Netflix already recalibrated its relationship with Meghan and Harry’s Archewell Productions earlier this year. The platform abandoned its initial lucrative guaranteed-content agreement for a more cautious “first look” deal. Future projects must now meet commercial and critical benchmarks before greenlighting.
This mirrors broader industry trends as streaming platforms prioritize data over celebrity brand recognition. Major platforms are abandoning the practice of throwing massive budgets at famous names without proven audience engagement. Instead, they’re implementing ruthless performance metrics.
A December holiday special represents a final test case. No Season 3 confirmation exists, leaving Archewell’s Netflix future uncertain. For celebrity lifestyle programming, the message resonates clearly: star power alone no longer guarantees streaming survival in an increasingly competitive market driven by measurable audience engagement.
