Suits is one of those fan favorite shows, one that has endured over the nearly 15 years since it first started airing on USA back in 2011. The series even had a major resurgence in the last few years due to it being available in full on Netflix, which inspired many binge-watch sessions — but even that recent momentum couldn’t save the new spin-off series Suits LA, which was just canceled upon the release of NBC’s fall schedule. Why, you might be wondering? The brand’s president of program planning strategy Jeff Bader explained why they made the decision to cut the cord.
“It’s so hard to talk about shows and which ones you bring back, and Suits had a very short run, but it really just has not resonated the way we thought it would,” Bader explained via Variety following the fall schedule being made available publicly.
“There can be many, many reasons why, people are speculating why it hasn’t resonated, but it’s just not really showing the potential to grow for us in the future, unfortunately.”
The exec added: “And it’s those decisions we had to make. We had to look at the performance of the shows, both on linear and on digital. We had to see the ones that looked like they had growth potential in the future. So we’re looking at how stable they are on their linear performance, how stable they are on digital, which ones are growing and which ones are declining. And we had to make some hard decisions.”
Bader also revealed that NBCUniversal also makes it a point to discuss the potential for a transfer to Peacock for any shows canceled on the network — but Suits LA decidedly did not get the green light for a move.
As for the show’s that weren’t on the chopping block, Bader explained exactly what made a show appealing enough to the network for them to keep it on the schedule, especially in the wake of having to make more room for sports with the NBA taking over Tuesday nights.
“We looked at what their performance was week-to-week, episode-to-episode, on both linear and digital, to just try and glean which ones we thought had the best ratings story,” Bader told the outlet. “And then on the creative side, the creative teams did the same thing. Which ones have the most potential, or the best potential, to capture a new audience? And these were the two shows that made their way to the top.”
Suits ran for nine seasons from 2011 to 2019. The revival series premiered in February and starred Stephen Amell, Lex Scott Davis, Josh McDermitt, and Bryan Greenberg. Additionally, original Suits cast members like Rick Hoffman, David Costabile, and original leading man Gabriel Macht have all made appearances on the new show. Suits creator Aaron Korsh was also the creator and executive producer of the spinoff series, which just aired its final episode on May 11, 2025.
Photo by: Nicole Weingart/NBC via Getty Images.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
