Just when we thought TV could no longer surprise us, along came Suits, the biggest show of 2023—which was a shock not only because it smashed Nielsen viewership records, but also because the show ended in 2019.
“I certainly never thought that four years after we went off the air, we’d be having any kind of resurgence, much less what’s actually been happening; it’s a great thing,” Suits creator Aaron Korsh told Newsweek.
The legal drama co-starring Meghan Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex, landed on Netflix in June and racked up more than 45 billion minutes of viewing time in a matter of months. The ensemble series follows Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams), who weasels his way into a top New York City law firm—despite never having been to law school—to work along Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) and win complex cases.
It sat atop the Nielsen streaming charts for a record-breaking 12 consecutive weeks, and even though it was eventually knocked from its perch by another Netflix hit, Virgin River, Suits has never been too far from the number one position, spending 15 weeks in the top spot so far in 2023.
Even Markle herself celebrated Suits‘ big year, describing its success as “wild” during a red-carpet interview with Variety in November. Markle began dating Prince Harry while working on the show and eventually married the world’s most eligible bachelor, marking her entry into the British royal family.
Suits first premiered on USA Network in 2011 and enjoyed a successful nine seasons before becoming the juggernaut it now is on Netflix, but how did that happen?
The Meghan Markle Effect
On the surface, many attributed Suits’ boom to the “Meghan Markle effect”—curious viewers tuning in to watch the duchess play paralegal Rachel Zane before she became a household name.
But that would be too simplistic, because even if Markle is bringing viewers to Suits, Korsh points out that it doesn’t explain why they then commit to watching the entire series, long after her departure.
“Obviously she drives a chunk of people to the show… but they stuck with the show, because, in my opinion, they liked it and it was pretty good,” he said, adding that “Meghan was already married to Harry and the show was on Amazon for four years and not as many people watched it there … So just it can’t have just been that effect.”
L-R: Executive producer Aaron Korsh, actress Meghan Markle, actor Patrick J. Adams, actor Gabriel Macht, actress Gina Torres, actor Rick Hoffman, and actress Sarah Rafferty of the television show “Suits” speak during the NBC Universal portion of the 2014 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, California in January 2014. Korsh credits the success of ‘Suits’ to far more than the so-called “Meghan Markle Effect.”
Photo by Frederick M. » …
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