Bridgerton has broken Netflix viewing records, announced a second season, and continues soaring to incredible heights with recent award nominations, including best ensemble and best lead actor for the Screen Actors Guild Awards and winning TV Program of the Year at the American Film Institute Awards.
Based on the New York Times best-selling book series by Julia Quinn, Bridgerton, the show, released on Christmas Day 2020, and fans around the world helped it to become the number one show on Netflix for weeks on end. You can even now indulge in your very own Bridgerton sweatshirts and hoodies for when you’re ready to cozy up with a Bridgerton book, cup of tea, or another round of watching the series.
But we know you want more from behind the scenes, more insidery details, and more Bridgerton bits to tide you over until next season. Enter Bridgerton: The Official Podcast. Consider it your official peek behind the curtain of the much-loved and lauded series that will, much like Lady Whistledown, also include all the gossip.
Brigerton: The Official Podcast launched on February 18 with a preview episode in which we met our host, Gabrielle Collins, and her three co-hosts: Jess Brownell, a writer on both season one and the upcoming season two; Hannah Greig, the on-set historian of the show; and Annabelle Hood, who served as both a Bridgerton researcher and personal assistant to showrunner Chris Van Dusen. Together they serve as your guides in unearthing never-before-heard details about the show.
Now you can listen to the first full-length episode of Bridgerton: The Official Podcast, which takes our first steps behind-the-scenes to relish the filming locations for Bridgerton. Showrunner Chris Van Dusen explains how he wanted to create “the most gorgeous, rich aspirational English garden anybody’s ever seen” and production designer Will Hughes-Jones explains how his team pulled that off. Also, Golda Rosheuvel (Queen Charlotte) and Adjoa Andoh (Lady Danbury) drop in to discuss their personal connections to historic sites.
More episodes roll out weekly from here, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out!
Collins is a podcast producer known for her work on and iHeartMedia’s food and travel podcasts such as Tom Colicchio’s Citizen Chef and WBEZ podcasts, including the Amnesty International USA Media Award-winning 16 Shots. She grew up between Chicago and the Bahamas and both studied theater and politics and got her Master’s in Journalism from New York University. That’s where she discovered her love for audio.
“Television is my jam,” she tells Shondaland. “Yes, and I love telling stories with sound.”
When she was a fledgling producer, it coincided with the heyday of Scandal, which Collins says was an escape between long days of writing and reporting.
“I was working at ABC News and New York Public Radio at the same time,” she says, “so I had to drum up some non-stop Olivia Pope energy. And sometimes Cyrus [laughs]. I can actually timestamp my journey as a producer with Shondaland moments: The Grey’s plane crash episode aired days before I flew to London (to finish up my capstone at Oriel). Viola Davis as Annalise in HTGAWM took off that wig around the time I struggled with how to bring my whole self to work. I can keep going. But above all, these moments, and the teams that made them of course, renewed the power of drama and storytelling for me. And I’d bet there are a lot of people who feel that way about Rhimes and the writers and everybody involved so giving those people a podcast that goes inside a Shondaland production is the cherry on top of what I get to do.”
Collins brings her audio and journalistic expertise along with a heavy dose of drama geekdom to Bridgerton: The Official Podcast, where she will dive deeper into how the show was created through conversations around Bridgerton’s storyline, music, the costumes and sets, and the historical context of the era.
As the series premieres its first full-length episode, Shondaland sat down the busy producer and host in between writing and recording sessions — and very little sleep.
VALENTINA VALENTINI: This is a different topic than you’ve covered in your previous podcasting work. What were your initial thoughts about taking it on?
GABRIELLE COLLINS: Yes, I’ve recently worked on heavier shows that dive into food insecurity and topics along those lines. My initial thoughts? Um, ‘Yes, thank you, please. It’s Shondaland, so, yes!’ And then I just got right into it. I am a worker. We’re producing several amazing Shondaland Audio shows right now so I just got into how to put this new puzzle together — interviews, how I wanted to approach talking about Bridgerton, what people would want to hear about. And I also asked myself if this podcast is for the television development nerd, or the person who’s watched the series nine times, but they just need a little more or, or is this for people like me, who just really love history and fantasy and what that space does for the soul?
VV: And what was the answer?
GC: I think this podcast has something for everyone. For instance, I think people who are really interested in the history will love hearing Dr. Hannah Greig and writer Jess Brownell discuss what they plucked from history and layered into the show. If you’re aspiring to maybe produce something of this scale one day or you watch behind-the-scenes specials like me, then you’ll absolutely love to hear from Betsy Beers and Sarada McDermott — both of whom are my producer goals. And then I think listeners will enjoy hearing the design teams talk about their craft and what it took to build a show of this scale.
VV: What are some of your favorite Bridgerton moments from the show?
GC: One of my favorite scenes is at the end of episode three when Daphne is descending the staircase at the ball. She is totally in control of her destiny; she knows exactly what she’s doing. And there’s that beautiful music playing that Kris Bowers composed. Daphne’s got her hair whipped; she’s got her dress fitting just right. And then she drops that fan. I just love everybody’s face in that moment. Everyone is thinking something different. And Penelope’s reaction, Nicola Coughlan who plays Penelope — the face she makes is so on-point. And then how thirsty the Prince is to dance with Daphne. I chuckled. And the dance is beautiful. Choreographer Jack Murphy talks about the movement of that scene on the podcast. My other favorite part is really the very beginning. The locations, the cast, the costumes. It all comes together to make us feel like we are inside the world of Bridgerton — that we are among the ‘ton and we are in 1813, in Grosvenor Square, in this big little bubble.
VV: What bits are you most excited to dive into for the podcast?
GC: I’m most excited to talk about some of the modern themes of the show and what they tell us about who we are today, how we think about love, marriage, and status. Chris [Van Dusen] and the writers pored over Regency history and baked it into the script in fun ways that we’ll hear Hannah talk about, too. The historical tidbits she shares with us make certain nuances and details in Bridgerton pop in a way I missed the first time around. I thought I knew about Regency but after Hannah schooled me on the ‘ton and the real scandal papers of the era, so it was fun to go back and look for those clues. I know I’ve mentioned Dr. Greig a lot, but I’m a fan…
VV: Oh, you don’t have to convince me. I interviewed her for Shondaland.com and I think we spoke for over an hour and I ended up with 7,000 words.
GC: Exactly! She is fascinating, and her breadth of knowledge is incredible.
I’m also excited for everyone to hear what my co-hosts Annabelle Hood and Jess Brownell have to share. Annabelle is so funny and her stories from life on set are lit — as grand as what we see on screen. And Jess not only takes us into the writer’s room, she pulls up a seat for us.
VV: What can fans expect without giving too much away?
GC: I think fans can expect to hear directly from the people whose huge vision and talents came together to make Bridgerton. People can expect to hear what it's like being in... I don't know how to say it, but what it's like to be inside Shondaland, and well, Shondaland is known for creating epic shows.
Valentina Valentini is a London-based entertainment, travel and food writer for Vanity Fair, Vulture, Variety, Thrillist, Heated, and The Washington Post. Her personal essays can be read in the Los Angeles Times, Longreads, and her tangents and general complaints can be seen on Twitter at @ByValentinaV.
Get Shondaland directly in your inbox: SUBSCRIBE TODAY
