Last Friday, we learned that Netflix had already greenlighted and filmed a second season of With Love, Meghan. The second season will come out this fall, but people who want more of Meghan’s lifestyle will get to order her As Ever products soon enough on the website. Remember, Netflix has partnered with Meghan on As Ever as well, and given what we’ve already seen of the product line, I have the sense that they’re starting small to gauge the interest, then they’ll be able to ramp up over the course of a year if the line sells well. Meanwhile, WLM is a hit, quickly making it into Netflix’s top-ten. In the hours and days after the news about the second season, you could feel the wind going out of a lot of hateful sails. They had spent days screaming, crying and throwing up about how WLM was the worst show ever, only to drive more interest and more viewership. So what we’re seeing now is a hell of a lot of COPE, with a dash of SEETHE. The Daily Mail had absolutely no advance knowledge of the second season, and yet they have “sources” newly claiming that the Sussexes’ Netflix deal is still in danger.

Meghan Markle’s bosses at Netflix are ‘worried’ by the grim reviews of her new show and her own excited announcement of season two does not mean the Sussexes’ $100million deal has already been renewed, an insider told MailOnline today. With Love, Meghan has dropped out of the top ten most watched shows globally as well as in the US and UK just six days after its release.

‘It’s not a runaway success’, MailOnline’s insider at Netflix has admitted, adding they understood that season two was filmed ‘back-to-back’ with season one last year.

On Friday, the Duchess showed herself celebrating, with her arms in the air in her garden, as she said the show had been renewed for a second season. She admitted to having made ‘mistakes’ but insisted that she is ‘learning every day’, after her hotly-anticipated Netflix show was widely panned. But one Netflix insider with links to the commercial arm of the streaming giant told MailOnline that the reviews have ‘worried’ the bosses. Meghan’s own father Thomas also gave a withering review yesterday and is upset by her dumping of the Markle surname for Sussex.

And a new season does not mean her Netflix contract has been renewed, MailOnline’s source says.

‘I know they filmed the shows back-to-back so in theory there is no second season, it’s like with lots of Netflix shows it is already in the bag at the same time as the first one. What this does is allow edits to be made to the show from feedback from press and Netflix viewers. It’s clever and cost effective. So no the overall contract hasn’t been renewed yet.’

The source added that bosses were ‘worried’ about the poor reviews – especially as they are a business partner in her lifestyle brand, which will launch in their bricks and mortar stores in the coming months.

‘The industry bibles like The Hollywood Reporter and Variety are not keen on it’, they said. ‘Netflix bosses are all worried now because they have invested a lot in the product line. They don’t know when and how to roll it all out’.

[From The Daily Mail]

It looks like the Daily Mail also has a cousin whose neighbor works at Netflix, and they got some piping hot tea on whether the Sussexes’ contract will be renewed. It’s like the worst kind of confirmation bias, only in this case, I’m pretty sure the Mail’s “Netflix insider” is just some Sussex-hater with a Netflix account. Given the news about the second season AND given Netflix’s partnership with Meghan on As Ever, I strongly suspect that we’ll get news (at some point) that the Sussexes quietly renewed their Netflix contract with favorable terms. And when that happens, just know that the Daily Mail will shift the goalposts again. It’s only been a week and these are the shifting goals: WLM is trash, everyone will hate it; it’s poorly reviewed across the board, there will never be a second season; it doesn’t matter if it makes the Netflix top-ten, it’s still not #1; sure, WLM got a second season, but will it not get a third; Netflix partnering with Meghan doesn’t mean anything, remember the bad reviews!!

Photos courtesy of Netflix.