Bridgerton fans have declared they’ve been ‘short-changed’ after an avid viewer figured out how long the main stars have featured together on screen for.
The second part of season 3 of the Netflix period drama hit screens last week, with the love story between Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) continuing after that sexy carriage scene.
For those yet to catch up on the final four episodes, spoilers will be avoided here, however some people have been left shocked after discovering statistics about the show.
After watching the 24 episodes, a dedicated Bridgerton fan went back through them all and calculated just how much time the lead characters spent together in scenes – with the result for Colina and Penelope being 54 minutes, 50 seconds, or 16.1% of the series.
In a detailed table posted on Reddit, user patorodil posted the numbers, which also offered a comparison to how the couples previous seasons centred on have got on screen too.
The first season, which was released in 2020, starred Phoebe Dynevor as Daphne Bridgerton and Rege-Jean Page as Simon Basset.
They appeared on screen together for 113 minutes, 28 seconds or 21.3% of the season.
The couple have not appeared together in any subsequent seasons after Rege decided to pursue other opportunities.
Meanwhile the second season, which came out two years later, featured Jonathan Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton and Simone Ashley as Kate Sharma.
By comparison, they’ve spent 99 minutes and 13 seconds on screen together, or 15.4 per cent of the series.
Despite their storyline featuring in the third season, they are the couple who have appeared the least amount of time on screen.
Upon seeing all of these the figures laid out in front of them, some fans expressed their displeasure.
‘Polin getting barely more screen time across 3 seasons than Kathony got across 1 and a bit is just heartbreaking. So many unnecessary uninteresting subplots stealing their spotlight,’ sparklinglies commented.
Another, MrsRomeo, wrote: ‘I think they are trying to steer it towards more of an ensemble show each season…but what the viewers really want is to enjoy the “main! couple. It is their love story…and that is what Bridgerton is all about.’
Meanwhile cheerstoroses pointed out: ‘You can definitely see a shift from S1 when they start introducing more side character plots.’
These calculations have now led to 70,000 fans signing a petition calling for deleted scenes between Colin and Penelope to be ‘restored’.
On change.org, the Netflix: restore deleted scenes Bridgerton S3 petition has detailed how ‘fans were left a bit unsatisfied with the lack of happy moments between the couple’ this season.
It then listed four scenes that were cut that showed the blossoming romance between Colin and Penelope and asked the streaming service to release them.
The poster then said cutting these scenes ‘feels like an injustice to the hard work’ of this season’s two lead stars.
