Amazon Officially Finds The Next Period Romance To Compete With Bridgerton & Outlander

Published Nov 13, 2026, 5:30 PM EST

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Amazon may be a major player in the streaming landscape, but they've never had a megahit period romance series that can compete with the likes of Bridgerton — though that may be changing with a new project. While Amazon has seen success with Prime Video period shows before, notably the multi-Emmy-winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, its biggest attempt to compete with the juggernaut Shondaland series fell flat: My Lady Jane, though a critical hit, was canceled after one season due to disappointing viewership numbers.

However, it looks like they're taking another shot at the genre. Earlier this week, Amazon MGM Studios announced that The American Heiress, a new period series for MGM+, was officially going into production this month. Based on the bestselling Daisy Goodwin novel of the same name, The American Heiress is a "romantic comedy of errors" set in 1893 and starring The Good Wife's Julianna Margulies as Isabella Cash, a wealthy American woman who moves to England with her beautiful "dollar princess" daughter Cora in hopes of marrying her into British aristocracy.

This may sound more like The Gilded Age than Bridgerton, but complicating Isabella's plans is the fact that Cora is head over heels in love with an American artist named Teddy. But things change when a hunting accident results in Cora waking up in Lulworth Castle, home to the 12^th Duke of Wareham. A storyline like that could give Benedict and Sophie's "My Cottage" romance a run for its money, and be just what Amazon needs to compete against Bridgerton, Outlander, et al.

The American Heiress Is Amazon's Answer To Bridgerton & Other Hit Period Romances

Image via MovieStillsDB

Just like contemporary period romance series like Bridgerton and Starz's Outlander, Amazon's The American Heiress comes with a built-in fanbase, as Goodwin's novel was a bestseller. Moreover, Bridgerton and Outlander were both backed by experienced TV professionals in Shonda Rhimes and Ronald D. Moore, respectively. For The American Heiress, Goodwin will not only serve as showrunner and executive producer, but she too has experience in television, having successfully created and written Victoria for PBS and ITV, and later turning it into a novel.

The American Heiress will stream on Amazon's MGM+ platform, not Prime Video.

The American Heiress also looks to do its part in helping dispense with the notion that the period genre is stuffy, promising to find the humor of the "naughty nineties" era. Like Bridgerton, The American Heiress novel has also drawn comparisons to Gossip Girl, with dollar princesses — affluent American women looking to marry cash-strapped European nobility in an exchange of wealth for prestige — serving as the "It girls" of the day. Though dollar princess Cora has yet to be officially cast, veteran actress Julianna Margulies playing her mother is a jewel in the show's tiara.

How The American Heiress Differs From Netflix's Bridgerton

When Isabella and Cora Cash arrive in England, it will have been many years since the Bridgerton siblings had their romantic adventures, as The American Heiress takes place in the Victorian era (and the Gilded Age in the United States), while Bridgerton is a Regency-era romance.

The American Heiress and Bridgerton also differ in scope and tone. Bridgerton is based on Julia Quinn's novel series, with each season centering on a different Bridgerton's love story, while The American Heiress is a standalone novel that revolves around Cora's romantic future. (Currently, however, The American Heiress is billed an "eight-episode series," not a miniseries).

While viewers of the MGM+ series will surely relish the escapist thrills of The American Heiress's opulent balls and glamorous gowns, the show will be considerably more grounded and realistic than Bridgerton, the ultimate maximalist escapist fantasy. Still, that doesn't mean The American Heiress will be dull. Its "romantic comedy of manners" description suggests there will be plenty of humor to be milked from the Cashes' fish-out-of-water situation. Whether it's enough for the show to find itself in leagues with Bridgerton remains to be seen.

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  Luke Thompson

  Lady Violet Bridgerton

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  Ruth Gemmell

  Benedict Bridgerton