“Suits” made legal dramas edgy and exciting in the 2010s, but the show’s spunk would’ve never made it to air had USA Network not broken one of its core rules to bring the series to life. The 2011 show — which followed Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) and Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) as they dominated the New York City corporate law world — originally had one major difference when creator Aaron Korsh brought the concept to USA’s president Jeff Wachtel, tailored specifically to adhere to the network’s restrictions at the time.
“The original take was that Harvey and Mike leave the firm,” Korsh told Entertainment Weekly. Wachtel was super into the pitch, but told Korsh flat out that he was puzzled by the choice to have the characters leave Pearson Hardman. “I was very inexperienced, and I was thinking, ‘They leave the firm because you guys told us you only do two-person shows,'” the showrunner explained.
USA Network took a risk that paid off by greenlighting Suits
The decision to exclude ensemble shows from USA Network’s programming came out of the success of series like “Monk” and “Psych.” Both shows featured smaller casts, becoming two of USA’s biggest successes during their “Blue Sky” era. With over 6 million viewers, “Psych” was the highest-rated scripted premiere of the year when it debuted in 2006, and it managed to maintain a consistent audience of approximately 2 million viewers across its eight season run.
As for “Monk,” the series was a critical darling, garnering eight Emmy Awards while boasting an average of over 4 million viewers from its 2002 premiere, to its 2009 finale, which was actually watched by an audience of over 9 million people. It made sense that USA was wary to build out shows featuring larger main casts knowing these more intimate character-centric projects had worked out so well for them.
That said, Jeff Wachtel was willing to take a risk. “Jeff said, ‘We don’t do ensemble shows.’ Then [he] takes a second and he goes, ‘But maybe we should. Leave them in the firm,'” Korsh told Entertainment Weekly. “I was overjoyed.” Needless to say, that risk paid off for USA, as “Suits” ran for nine well-received seasons and even sparked talks of a potential reboot when the series hit Netflix in 2023.
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