Baby Reindeer provoked a small tornado of gossip and drama in the entertainment industry when it premiered on Netflix in early April, but it appears the dust is now quietly settling.
Amid threats of legal action from Fiona Harvey, the woman who allegedly inspired the character of stalker Martha on the show, and Netflix’s stunning silence, the hype surrounding the splashy drama-thriller has slowly died down. As of June 4, Baby Reindeer is out of Netflix’s Global Top 10 for the first time since it debuted at number five.
It seems the show just could not compete with Bridgerton-mania. The first part of the regency romance hit Netflix on May 16 which contributed to the rise of both it and its spin-off Queen Charlotte on the charts. Recent releases Eric, Raising Voices, and Geek Girl make up the podium of the global top 10.
Unless Harvey finally goes through with suing Netflix after repeated teasing, or series creator Richard Gadd and the Netflix team produce evidence that will put the accusations of defamation to bed, it’s likely Baby Reindeer will not come back to the Netflix charts, and especially not to its top spots. The show was conceived as a miniseries by Gadd, based on his critically acclaimed autobiographical one-man show, and is not predicted to be renewed or continued by the streamer.
It has since been plagued by controversy after viewers tracked down the inspiration for the character of Martha online. Fiona Harvey’s interview on Piers Morgan’s YouTube channel added fuel to the fire as she contested the Netflix show’s “true story” label and denied a good portion of the events Gadd included in it.
As of mid-May, Baby Reindeer had collected over 60 million viewers. According to Deadline, it only needed 20 more million views to make it to the 10th place of the platform’s most popular shows ever.