NBC has ordered legal drama Suits: L.A. to series. Aaron Korsh, who created the original Suits, is the creator. 

Stephen Amell, Josh McDermitt, Lex Scott Davis and Bryan Greenberg are in the cast. 

The show centers on Ted Black, a former federal prosecutor from New York, who has reinvented himself representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles. His firm is at a crisis point and to survive he must embrace a role he held in contempt his entire career. Ted is surrounded by a group that tests their loyalties to both Ted and each other and can’t help but mix their personal and professional lives.

UCP is producing the series with Hypnotic. Korsh executive produces with David Bartis, Doug Liman and Gene Klein. Victoria Mahoney is director and executive producer of the pilot. 

Suits went for nine seasons on USA Network, starting in 2011. It found a larger audience streaming on both Netflix and Peacock. 

NBC also ordered a series for Grosse Pointe Garden Society, about four members of a suburban garden club, from different walks of life, who get caught up in murder and mischief. 

Melissa Fumero, AnnaSophia Robb, Ben Rappaport and Matthew Davis are in the cast. 

Suits will make its broadcast television debut this fall on Fox-owned MyNetwork TV, Frank Cicha, executive vice president of programming for the Fox Television Stations, said on Monday. 

“It has become increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to launch obscure product on broadcast TV. Suits is arguably the most buzzworthy scripted series of the last half decade, and MyNet looks forward to amplifying its success by introducing it to the broadcast television audience.  And we’re discussing some fun ways to do just that,” Cicha said in a statement.

Also: Syndication's Old Rules No Longer Apply

Suits – which stars Meghan Markle in her pre-royal days, Patrick J. Adams and Gabriel Macht – aired on NBCUniversal’s USA Network from 2011-19. Last year, it experienced a huge resurgence when Netflix picked it up for a streaming run. Earlier this year, NBCUniversal casually took the show to syndication clients to see if there was any interest in it.

“With its witty dialogue, engaging plots and enjoyable characters, Suits has proven its popularity in the streaming space, and is the right show at the right time to engage linear TV audiences across the country,” Sean O’Boyle, executive VP and national syndication sales manager, NBCUniversal Syndication Studios, said. “We are thrilled to continue our successful partnership with MyNet in bringing Suits to broadcast television.”

MyNetwork TV slates an entire schedule of off-NBC shows in primetime, including Law & Order: SVU, Chicago PD, Chicago Fire and Dateline. The Fox-owned mini–network acquires the shows on an all-barter basis, which will also be the case with Suits. Over the show’s eight seasons, 134 episodes were produced.

NBC has just started production on a Suits spinoff, Suits: LA, starring Stephen Amell and Josh McDermitt.

Besides Markle, Adams and Macht, Suits also stars Gina Torres (Westworld), Sarah Rafferty (Brothers & Sisters), Rick Hoffman (Billions), and Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy).

Suits is produced by UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group. The series is created and executive produced by Aaron Korsh. Doug Liman, David Bartis and Gene Klein of Hypnotic also serve as executive producers.

In an environment where content is available everywhere and all the time, station groups are picking up shows from places and platforms that were previously considered off-limits. Rules such as number of episodes, national clearance and exclusivity are no longer in play. Instead, groups are looking at factors such as economics and versatility, as well as what they can produce themselves when it comes to programming. 

Producers have been placing first-run shows on streaming channels for several years to create secondary revenue streams. But it’s been only recently that TV stations have begun to acquire shows off of streamers. That’s largely because streaming channels had not aired the types of day-and-date programs that stations need, but with the arrival of FAST (free ad-supported television) channels, that is changing. The proliferation of platforms has also rendered exclusivity almost moot. 

“There’s very little duplication of audiences between streaming and broadcast,” Stephen Brown, executive VP, programming and development, Fox Television Stations and Fox First Run, said. “It’s OK when you are trying to aggregate an audience to have it on multiple platforms. That’s the reality of our business and I think that broadcasters are beginning to understand that.” 

For example, Judge Judy ended original production in 2021, but daytime viewers scarcely know that. CBS Media Ventures (CMV) sold the show’s library episodes — also known as repeats — to stations for much-lower license fees. 

Judge Judy continues to average around a 4.0 household rating, according to Nielsen, ranking it fourth in overall syndication, behind only the top-rated game shows. In February, the CBS- and Fox-owned station groups both renewed Judge Judy for three more years, and Gray Television and Hearst Television also picked up the veteran court show in multiyear deals.

In the meantime, Judge Judy Sheindlin herself moved on to Amazon Studios, where she stars in Judy Justice and produces panel court series Tribunal Justice for free streamer Freevee. In the first example of a show coming to syndication from a streamer, Scott Koondel and his Sox Productions have cleared Judy Justice in all-barter multiyear deals in 99% of the country on such groups as Nexstar Media Group, Sunbeam Television, Cox Media Group, Weigel Broadcasting and Mission Broadcasting, Koondel said. Two seasons of Judy Justice have aired on Freevee and a third is in the works. 

Koondel has agreements in place for stations to take Tribunal Justice starting with the 2026-27 season, giving those stations Judy-centric court blocks. He is also offering stations that did not renew Judge Judy in this cycle two more episodes of Judy Justice each day. 

Station executives argue that the deal is not so groundbreaking, since Judy Justice is essentially a new version of Judge Judy. But the key difference is that Amazon already paid for the show to be produced, so stations can now acquire it without cash changing hands. 

‘Football’ All Year Round

Another example of a show that’s tweaking the typical business model is Sony Pictures Television’s Good Morning Football. The football-focused talk show has aired on NFL Network since 2016. Now, NFL Network is moving the show from New York to Los Angeles’s SoFi Stadium and expanding it by two hours. Those two new hours are being packaged and sold to TV stations, and possibly other platforms, to run five days a week in any time period a station prefers. The expansion hours will be produced 42 to 48 weeks a year, giving stations year-round programming. 

Good Morning Football is poised to break the mold in a few ways — one of which is that TV stations generally haven’t aired sports programming in syndication. But nothing on broadcast TV is as marketable or appealing as the NFL, so it makes sense TV stations would want to offer pro football-focused programming to their local audiences. 

In a similar vein, broadcast networks are also starting to toy with the model of letting other platforms pay for the privilege of getting a show’s first run. Amazon MGM Studios is producing a U.S. remake of hit British game show 1% Club, with Patton Oswalt as host. Eight days after each episode debuts on Prime Video, it will run on Fox. 

“Deals like this make broadcast sustainable when it was increasingly becoming not,” Frank Cicha, executive VP, programming, Fox TV Stations and MyNetworkTV, said. “This is what needs to happen.” 

NBCUniversal is currently in the market floating the idea of bringing Suits to TV stations, sources said, after the off-basic cable show became a streaming sensation on Netflix. Suits — starring Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, Gabriel Macht and Patrick J. Adams — originally aired on USA Network from 2011 to 2019. It was previously available on Prime Video, but Netflix snapped up the rights to seasons one through eight when they became available and started streaming the show in June. (Season nine, by which time Markle and Adams had departed, is only available on Peacock.) All of a sudden, a show that had been off the air for four years was dominating the streaming charts for weeks on end.

Should TV stations decide to pick up an off-network run of Suits, it will mark the first time a series has started on cable, moved to streaming and then headed to TV stations — riding a resurgence years after its original cable run.

Similarly, Amazon MGM is considering bringing procedural Bosch to TV stations. Bosch, starring Titus Welliver, aired for seven seasons on Prime Video and its sequel, Bosch: Legacy, also starring Welliver, has aired for two seasons on Amazon Freevee with season three on the way. Stations would have plenty of episodes to work with even with the shorter seasons that streamers typically order.

All of this gives TV stations more options and flexibility as they consider their programming options. 

“A lot of the shows we’re doing now, we’re acquiring on a nonexclusive basis,” E.W. Scripps head of programming, national networks Tom Zappala said. “With declining ratings on the traditional side, you need more avenues to monetize the shows.”

Scripps, which now owns Court TV, is looking at how it can turn a true-crime show like Someone They Knew into a program it can run on its TV stations. Scripps also owns such FAST networks as Bounce, Grit and Laff, acquired from Katz Media Group in 2017. Scripps purchased Ion Media’s networks and TV stations in 2017 and offers national news service, Scripps News, formerly Newsy, which streams over OTT platforms. Many Scripps stations offer an hour of Scripps News each day.

“There are fewer syndicated options, but we are creating our own opportunities with the content we create and with our recent foray into sports,” Zappala said.

Groups Churn Out Content Hubs

Scripps is a good example of what many television station groups — including Nexstar, Sinclair and Gray — are doing, which is making themselves into local, regional and, in some cases, national content hubs. Groups are producing local content and news and offering that content over TV stations, FAST channels, diginets and apps. 

Gray has Investigate TV Plus, which it produces and runs on its owned TV stations in 113 markets, Matt Jaquint, senior managing VP and chief revenue officer at the station group, said. Gray is considering taking Investigate TV Plus out to the rest of the country. Gray also has FAST channel Local News Live, produced from its Washington, D.C., bureau. A version of LNL already airs as a linear show on Gray’s NBC and The CW affiliate WIS in Columbia, South Carolina, and Gray could add LNL to its other owned stations.

Station groups selling their programming to other broadcasters is something that is always discussed but rarely works. As traditional providers pull back, though, stations need to produce for themselves. 

“I think that will be looked at more and more as we look at synergies and costs, because these things aren’t cheap to make,” Jaquint said. “I think as station groups consider what we can do together that makes sense, that’s how the industry changes.” 

By taking advantage of all of these options, stations can be less reliant on expensive shows produced by Hollywood studios, although buyers say there’s still room in a mix for a few of those. 

“We are definitely still willing to pay for premium syndication,” Jaquint said. “Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! are perfect examples; we have those in 53 of our markets. There’s a reason we still pay for syndication, but the cost has to fit the model and daytime is a tougher place to make that work.” 

While the local TV-station business has gotten tougher than ever, as recent station-group earnings reports demonstrate, groups are now freed up to find programming in whatever ways work for them.

“We’re willing to look at content wherever it is coming from,” Zappala said. “Our main feature is local news and information. Our job is to get great information and deliver it to people across all those different ways of distribution. That’s why I see more optimism in our future.” 

NBC, which has successfully made it to season two with reboots of Quantum Leap and Night Court recently, just placed a pilot order in a jurisdiction that presents even more fruitful odds. 

Suits L.A. will start production in late March in — wait for it — sunny Vancouver, with Aaron Korsh, creator of the original USA Network hit Suits, serving as writer and executive producer. Suits EPs David Bartis, Doug Limon and Gene Klein are also back. The pilot will be produced under the banner of Universal Content Productions.  

None of the original cast, who famously did their thing in the Big Apple, appear to be coming back, at least as regulars. 

Here's the logline that NBC provided Thursday: “Ted Black, a former federal prosecutor from New York, has reinvented himself representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles. His firm is at a crisis point and, in order to survive, he must embrace a role he held in contempt his entire career. Ted is surrounded by a stellar group of characters who test their loyalties to both Ted and each other while they can’t help but mix their personal and professional lives. All of this is going on while events from years ago slowly unravel that led Ted to leave behind everything and everyone he loved.”

Created back in the halcyon days of USA Network’s “Characters Wanted” branding initiative, under the direction of then-NBCU cable content chief Bonnie Hammer, Suits had a solid if unspectacular nine-season run from 2011 to 2019. 

Streaming domestically on both Peacock and Netflix, Suits has enjoyed a massive resurgence last year, rating as subscription streaming's most streamed show in the U.S. for 2023, according to Nielsen data. The research company claims the 57.7 million minutes of Suits streaming last year surpassed an annual engagement record set by The Office in 2020, when it amassed 57.1 million streaming minutes. 

“Suits, a series that finished airing on television four years ago, is the hit show of the summer," declared the Washington Post on July 31. 

"My sister is watching Suits. My boyfriend’s mom is watching Suits. I am now rewatching Suits," wrote The Guardian's Adrian Horton, calling the off-USA Network legal comedy-drama "America’s most-watched TV show of the summer." 

If you believe in Nielsen's deeply flawed methodology for measuring streaming video, that latter description is spot-on for the NBCUniversal series, which after running on USA Network for nine seasons from 2011-2019 and introducing the world to an up-and-coming actress named Meghan Markle in the process, suddenly out of nowhere made its case as a go-to binge rerun amid the drop of the show's first eight of its nine seasons on Netflix back on June 17. 

Suits, which stars Gabriel Macht as a high-flying attorney who begins bro-ishly mentoring a law-degree-less college dropout with genius-level capabilities (played by Patrick J. Adams), has been available on Peacock for several years. But it was the Netflix drop in mid-June that sent it into the binge-watching stratosphere. 

According to Nielsen, Suits has ranked No. 1 among all shows in subscription streaming from June 19 through the July 30, the last day for which the research company has so far published streaming data. 

With 20.31 million minutes of U.S. streaming on Peacock and Netflix measured by the research company over the initial six-week span since Suits dropped on Netflix, the show ranks second only to Netflix mega-hit Stranger Things since Nielsen started publishing weekly streaming rankings three years ago. 

So Suits is a massive strike-era hit, showing the world how the TV business used to run back when writers were more appropriately paid and given a proper mount of creative control. (This Los Angeles Times article penned in early August by former Suits scribe Ethan Drogin is can't-miss reading if you find any part of that notion compelling.)

That is one, agreeably legit way of looking at it. Another is to say that the resurgence of Suits represents a nice little regional story amid a streaming business that has gone truly global, with what is its biggest supplier, Netflix, now operating in more than 190 countries. 

Since it signed off on the USA Network in September 2019, references to Suits only occasionally surfaced amid reporting on the background of Markle, whose marriage to Prince Harry rendered her the Duchess of Sussex in 2018. 

Also read: Gauge or Grift? As the Press Once Again Goes Nuts Over Nielsen's Monthly Market Share Tracker, It's Time to Ask -- Again -- Just What's in This Sausage, Anyway?

The series became a U.S. streaming hit when Netflix got ahold of the first eight seasons. It is thus logical to conclude that the bulk of Suits streaming this summer has occurred on Netflix, which has 75.6 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada vs. 24 million for Peacock. 

Yet, Netflix's own self-published programming metrics, which cover usage in more than 100 countries, paint a much different, far more nuanced picture of Suits' streaming success. 

Since it debuted on Netflix, Suits has placed in the top 10 in the platform's weekly English-language TV series rankings only for four weeks, finishing at its highest position, No. 5, for the week of June 19-25, during which season 1 drew 27.7 million hours of streaming. 

That same week, according to Netflix's own data, season 6 of original sci-fi series Black Mirror ranked as the No. 1 English-language show not only on the broader Netflix platform of over 100 countries, but also more specifically among U.S. Netflix users. 

The fact that Suits ran on both Netflix and Peacock clouds the comparison of Netflix's rankings vs. Nielsen. 

Also read: Nielsen and Netflix Bump Heads Again on Programming Metrics

For that same week of June 19-25, Nielsen, which doesn't measure viewing on mobile devices, reported that combined U.S. viewing of all nine seasons of Suits on both Netflix and Peacock beat all seasons of Black Mirror by a total of more than 800 million streaming minutes.

Did the added margin of Suits viewing on Peacock make that much of a difference? On most weeks, 800 million U.S. streaming minutes alone will rank a show at least in the bottom half of Nielsen's top 10. We couldn't find a single week before June 17 in which Suits on Peacock alone cracked Nielsen's ranker. 

Again, we have often found Nielsen's streaming metrics fishy when directly comparing them to Netflix's first-party data. On one occasion, in early 2021, Nielsen even revised its rankings for Don't Look Up after Next TV accused the research company of shortchanging the original Netflix film. 

But as far as Netflix's own data goes, the streaming company has delivered no numerical proof that Suits has been a runaway global hit on its own platform. 

Netflix ranks each season of shows individually, which further complicates comparisons to other measurement systems. But according to Netflix's data, the first season of Suits hasn't garnered as much engagement as it did that first full week on Netflix (June 19-25). And no subsequent season of the show available on Netflix, from seasons 2-8, has managed to crack Netflix's weekly top 10 this summer.

Netflix does publish select and limited insight as to how shows and movies rank in individual countries. It's unclear as to whether any season of Suits, or the combined  volumes of Suits, ever finished No. 1 on Netflix in the U.S. on any given week this summer, by Netflix's own accounting.  

Broadcast and cable’s share of viewing dropped below 50% (to 49.6%) as streaming hit a new high in July, according to Nielsen.

Broadcast’s share was 20% in July, a new low, down from 20.8% in June. Cable had a 29.6% share, down from 30.6%. 

It’s the first time cable’s share had been below 30%. It’s worth noting that cable had a 40.1% share as recently as June 2021.

Streaming’s share rose to 38.7% in July, the highest since Nielsen began issuing monthly reports, and up from 37.7% in June.  

Overall TV usage increased 0.2% in July, with viewing by viewers under age 18 up 4%.

Time spent streaming was up 2.9%. Streaming usage is up 12% from a year ago. 

Illustrating the shift from linear TV to streaming, Nielsen said that Suits — a former cable TV series — had more than 18 billion minutes of viewing on Netflix. That contributed to Netflix’s 4.2% increase in viewing in the month. Nielsen noted that a year ago, Netflix original Stranger Things had 18 billion viewing minutes for Netflix.

In July, broadcast usage fell 3.6% from June. Compared to a year ago, broadcast viewing was down 5.4%. The top broadcast programs were ABC World News Tonight and the MLB All-Star Game on Fox.

Cable usage was down 2.9% month over month, and down 12.5% from a year ago.. ESPN’s Home Run Derby and College World Series were the top two cable programs in July, followed by When Calls The Heart on The Hallmark Channel.

YouTube remained the top streaming service, accounting for 9.2% of viewing in July, up from 8.8% in June.

Netflix was No. 2 at 8.5%, up from 8.2%.

Among the other big streamers, Hulu had a 3.5% share, up from 3.5%; Amazon Prime Video was at 3.4%, up from 3.2%; Disney Plus was unchanged at 2%; Max and Tubi each had a 1.4% share, unchanged; Peacock had a 1.1% share, down from 1.2%; The Roku Channel had a 1.1% share up from 1%; Paramount Plus had 1%, unchanged, and Pluto TV had 0.9%, unchanged.

USA Network’s premiere of Suits spinoff drama series Pearson and Netflix's reality series Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee lead the list of new and returning shows debuting this week.

Pearson, which premieres July 17, stars Gina Torres as lawyer Jessica Pearson, who moves to Chicago to work for that city’s mayor after being disbarred in New York, according to USA Network.

The series’s debut follows the premiere of the ninth and final season of Suits.

Also premiering this week is the new season of Netflix’s reality series Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, starring Jerry Seinfeld and featuring appearances by Eddie Murphy, Seth Rogen, Ricky Gervais and Jamie Foxx.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting this week on cable networks and streaming services:

July 15 -- Girl Cruise (reality series) -- VH1

July 16 -- Behind Closed Doors (documentary) -- HBO

July 16 -- Human Discoveries (animation/comedy) -- Facebook Watch

July 16 -- Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein (comedy series) -- Netflix

July 19 -- All of Nothing: Carolina Panthers (reality sports) -- Prime Video

July 19 -- Killjoys (returning series) -- Syfy

July 19 -- Queer Eye (returning series) -- Netflix

July 21 -- Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (reality series) -- Nat Geo

USA Network has picked up to series its Suits spinoff starring Gina Torres, the network said Thursday (March 8).

The new series follows Torres’ Suits character Jessica Pearson as she adjusts to the dirty world of Chicago politics, said network officials. Suits will introduce the new series during its season seven finale on April 25, said network officials.

USA has already renewed Suits for an eighth season.

“Gina’s portrayal of Jessica Pearson as one of television’s strongest, most successful businesswomen has made a huge impact with fans,” said Chris McCumber, President, Entertainment Networks, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment in a statement. “We can’t wait to explore this next chapter in the Suits legacy – and a brand new world for Jessica.”

USA Network’s head of programming Jackie De Crinis is leaving the network after signing a production deal with Universal Cable Productions, the company said Wednesday.

De Crinis, most recently served as executive vice president of original programming for USA, will develop and produce original projects for the studio as part of the new agreement with Universal Cable Productions.  One of her first projects is original drama Eyewitness, based on the Norwegian crime drama of the same name, according to the studio.

De Crinis is responsible for developing such USA hits as Mr. Robot, Royal Pains, Suits, Psych and Monk.

“Jackie is an exceptional talent and has developed some of the most iconic shows on television,” said Dawn Olmstead, Executive Vice President, Development, Universal Cable Productions sai9d in a statement. “I look forward to bringing her insight and experience as a producer to our team. We are fortunate to have her.”

Meghan Markle, star of USA Network's original drama Suits, will host the Women in Cable Telecommunications 2015 Signature Luncheon, taking place on Tuesday, May 5, at McCormick Place in Chicago. The Signature Luncheon kicks off day one of NCTA's Internet & Television Expo (INTX).

Markle, who plays Rachel Zane on Suits, is a graduate of Northwestern University's prestigious theater program. She is best known for her work in television, with notable recurring and guest starring roles on Fringe, Without a Trace, CSI: NY, CSI: Miami and The League. Her feature film credits include Get Him to the Greek, Remember Me and A Lot Like Love. In addition to her acting work and running the lifestyle website, TheTig.com, Markle was recently named UN Advocate for Women's Political Participation and Leadership.

"We are thrilled to welcome Meghan as host of the WICT Signature Luncheon," Maria E. Brennan, WICT's CEO, said in a release. "Meghan is a sterling example of someone who not only plays a strong female character, she is one in real life. As we honor several companies that are making a difference for women through public service initiatives, we can think of no better individual to present the 2015 WICT Signature Accolades."

The 2015 WICT Signature Accolade honorees represent international, national and regional community service initiatives among cable's programmers, operators and industry suppliers. More information about the 2015 WICT Signature Luncheon and details about table reservations and individual tickets may be found online at www.wictsignatureluncheon.com

The USA drama Suits will return for the rest of season four Jan. 28 at 10 p.m., and the half-hour comedy Sirens will air for the second season Jan. 27 at 10 p.m, the network announced today.

Suits has six remaining episodes, and has been the top five scripted series on ad-supported cable in the 3rd quarter for P18-49, P25-54 and P18-34. The series has also been in the top ten on basic cable in total viewers P2+.

The series is created and executive produced by Aaron Korsh, with Doug Liman, David Bartis, Gene Klein of Hypnotic, Daniel Arkin and Chris Downey as executive producers.  

From executive producers Denis Leary and Bob Fisher, the second season of Sirens is set to air with back-to-back episodes. The comedy is produced by Fox Television Studios and Apostle, in association with Daybreak Pictures. Leary and Jim Serpico work as executive producers for Apostle, along with Fisher. Hal Vogel, David Aukin, and David Leach of Daybreak Pictures.