Despite abominable Rotten Tomatoes score All’s Fair becomes Hulu’s biggest scripted series of recent years

The flashy new, big-budget legal drama All’s Fair by Ryan Murphy, starring Kim Kardashian along with a roster of Hollywood celebrities, is a hot topic. Critics ripped it to shreds, declaring it sloppy and shallow; its score on Rotten Tomatoes plummeted quickly. The Tomatometer score now stands at roughly 5% from its initial score of 0% at the time All’s Fair first hit the screens.

However, this did not deter people from watching. It actually aroused more curiosity in them. In only a few days after its release, All’s Fair attracted millions of viewers, and it became the largest scripted premiere on Hulu in years.

It is the ideal representation of how we consume television now: we hate-watch. We watch a program, laugh about it, tweet about our feelings, and continue to watch it. The popularity of All’s Fair demonstrates how online buzz, celebrity influence, and the excitement of controversy can transform a failure into a success. The show reveals that bad reviews do not necessarily imply bad business in 2025, as they can be the best form of promotion ever.

Bad reviews didn’t stop All’s Fair from a blockbuster debut

Well, here is the twist: All’s Fair was heavily trashed by critics on Rotten Tomatoes and yet people watched it nonetheless, and in such large numbers. It is reported that All's Fair received over 3.2 million worldwide views within 72 hours, which is the largest scripted premiere Hulu has had in approximately 3 years. This is a huge victory for the streamer and it demonstrates that negative reviews do not necessarily damage first week performances.

Why did it work despite scathing reviews? First, big names draw big audiences. Ryan Murphy is the director of All’s Fair, and the stars include Kim Kardashian, Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, and so on, and naturally, people were curious. Secondly, social media transformed negative publicity into free publicity. Each negative review enticed more people to give it a watch and find out for themselves whether it was so bad.

And lastly, the streaming services are obsessed with fast buzz, a good opening weekend seems fantastic even if the numbers begin to decline later. Attention is everything in the modern world, and controversy at times is beneficial in some cases.

The backlash that boosted viewership

Critics didn’t hold back. They described All’s Fair as existentially awful, claimed that the dialogues were clumsy, and that Kardashian’s acting was so stiff and looked unusual. Such negative reviews usually would have driven people away but in this case they backfired.

Negativity goes viral online. A mean review is reposted as memes on social media and before we know it people are all eager to watch the show to know what all the hype is about. It is not a new trend at all, people have always been fond of seeing something “so bad they’re good.”

But All’s Fair is unique in the sense that it appears to be a high-end drama with a huge budget, nevertheless, most of the critics despised it. That contrast leaves people wondering. The audience watches it to decide on their own, whether the negative ratings are justified, or simply to be part of the new joke on the internet.

Celebrity, irony and modern viewing habits

Kim Kardashian made a brilliant comeback and jokingly said that All’s Fair was the most critically acclaimed show of the year. It demonstrated that the cast and creators are not afraid of the bad reviews, they are enjoying it. Such a self-conscious attitude is more appropriate to the current culture where individuals not only enjoy the show but also the drama surrounding it.

All’s Fair had a star power, fashionable, and glossy appearance, which made it viral even without the approval of the critics. The result? Massive fan base and social buzz. To streamers, it represents ad-deals and attention. To people who create it, it shows that in the modern-day world, you do not need a positive review, you just need something that people cannot stop watching or talking about.

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