Bridgerton's Regé-Jean Page Scores Emmy Nomination in Wake of Exit

Departing Bridgerton star Regé-Jean Page just received a pretty nifty goodbye gift: an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. (View complete nominations list here.)

Netflix (via Lady Whistledown) announced in early April that Page won’t appear in Season 2 as Simon Basset — a move that was widely expected considering the triply-renewed period sudser’s next chapter will take a page from Julia Quinn’s second novel and focus on Lord Anthony Bridgerton’s (Jonathan Bailey) quest for a bride. (That said, Page’s leading lady, Phoebe Dynevor, will be back, given that “Daphne will remain a devoted wife and sister, helping her brother navigate the upcoming social season and what it has to offer.”)

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Bridgerton EP Shonda Rhimes later confirmed that Page had always and only been signed to a one-season deal, though he was invited to return for Season 2 cameos — reportedly at $50,000 a pop, though by some accounts he declined since his character would not be the focus. “[T]here’s a lot of fantastically interesting talk that’s been going on, mainly ’cause I think people are having a hard time letting go,” Rhimes said. “He’s a busy man!”

Rhimes said that the passionate reaction to Page’s Season 2 absence demonstrates that, when all is said and done, Shondaland did its job right. “He’s amazing, but that’s our job and something that [production partner] Betsy [Beers] and I have been doing since… well, God, has it been 20 years now? Finding guys — I mean, hopefully ladies, too — but finding men that our audiences find devastatingly attractive and they become incredibly overly attached to, and they get enraged about when we move them about in any way.”

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