The Reasons Why Suits Was Canceled

Amidst an ongoing double strike between writers' and actors' guilds in Hollywood, audiences have been revisiting old favorites on streaming services — and apparently, that includes the USA Network original series "Suits." The show, which first premiered in 2011, centers around a New York law firm where Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) managed to work his way onto the staff as a Harvard Law-trained associate. Here's the catch, though: he didn't go to Harvard, nor did he attend law school or graduate college at all, but he has a photographic memory that's allowed him to figure out multiple loopholes to keep his job.

"Suits," which is currently a huge streaming hit on both Netflix and Peacock, ended its run in the fall of 2019 after a whopping nine seasons... so why did it come to a close? Well, "Suits" ended for a handful of reasons, including cast departures, new characters, and, inexplicably, the British monarchy (although creators haven't totally ruled out a reboot just yet).

Well, there's a huge reason as to why "Suits" didn't continue for a long time after its seventh season — one of its stars became a part of the British monarchy. Meghan Markle, who played paralegal Rachel Zane since the show's inception, ended up meeting and dating Prince Harry, the second son of King Charles III, and she left acting behind when the two got engaged and ultimately married in May of 2018.

In 2019, creator Aaron Korsh was pretty straightforward with Deadline, saying that alongside Markle, other cast members left, including Gina Torres... which left them with some big decisions. "Right after we finished shooting season 6, I went to USA," Korsh said. "At that time we only had the cast under contract until the end of season 7. We had to figure out what to do, and we weren't 100 percent sure what the cast wanted to do. We'd lost Gina and we came up with a plan to extend the cast for two more years beyond season 7 to seasons 8 and 9. The goal was to have a 16-episode season 8 and a 10-episode season 9."

Of course, we all know what happened next. "During the course of season 7, as they were negotiating the cast's contracts for two years, an unforeseen thing happened," Korsh mused. "You can never know that one of your stars is going to marry the Prince of England, and Patrick [Adams] decided not to return, so we had a choice whether to keep going after season 7."

In the same Deadline piece, Aaron Korsh continued, "We decided that the original plan was a 16-episode season 8 and a 10-episode season 9, let's see if we can do that. And dovetailing with that, Katherine Heigl called and she wanted to be involved in the show, and we thought it was a perfect way to help extend the franchise and make it to that end of season 9."

Gina Torres, Patrick J. Adams, and Meghan Markle all left the series, only for Korsh and his team to bring in "Grey's Anatomy" veteran Heigl alongside Dulé Hill ("The West Wing," "Psych") and Amanda Schull ("Center Stage," the SyFy "12 Monkeys" series). This tactic makes sense — real-life law firms certainly see a lot of turnover, after all — but after viewers got invested in characters like Rachel, Mike, and Torres' Jessica Pearson, ratings declined throughout Season 8. This definitely contributed to the show's ending, even though it eventually found a second life on streaming in 2023.

For every spin-off success story like "Frasier," there's a "Joey" — and unfortunately, the "Suits" spin-off fell firmly into the latter category. For the first eight seasons of "Suits," Gina Torres, known for roles on cult shows like "Firefly" and "Alias," plays high-powered lawyer Jessica Pearson, whom we meet as the co-founder of the show's central law firm Pearson Hardman). A tough and sometimes overbearing but brilliant lawyer, Jessica frequently butts heads with Harvey Spector (Gabriel Macht), one of the firm's senior partners and Mike Ross' direct boss — and thanks to Torres' sheer talent, it makes some sense that the powers that be would try and center a spin-off around her character.

This didn't quite work, unfortunately. After premiering on the USA Network in July 2019, the show was canceled after one season — in October of that same year. The show's only season is now streaming on Peacock, should you want to give it a watch.

It seems like everything is getting a reboot these days, whether it's a full-on revival or just a special where the stars of a beloved show reunite to discuss the project. So is that in the cards for "Suits" now that it's found brand new audiences on Netflix in 2023?

In August 2023, executive producer Gene Klein spoke to TVLine about the renewed success of "Suits," specifically citing that, in June of that year, the series surpassed 3.1 billion streams on Netflix and Peacock combined. When the outlet asked Klein if a reboot was in the cards, he said it's definitely possible. "You know, I've mentioned to Aaron [Korsh] that, in this era of reboots and reunions and all this other stuff, I'm expecting a call at some point. But I'm not aware of any serious conversations. It's just one of those things where, in this day and age, you wouldn't be surprised if somebody called you someday. But so far, nothing that I'm aware of."

There's another huge snag, though — the Duchess of Sussex. Even though Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have stepped away from their royal duties and effectively left the monarchy behind, Markle is now one of the most famous figures on the planet, so getting her back for a "Suits" reboot probably isn't going to happen. Asked about Markle potentially returning, Klein agreed: "I would assume that's just not possible."

The first eight seasons of "Suits" are available to stream on Netflix, and Season 9 is available on Peacock.