'Suits' is Netflix's unlikely new smash hit — and may also point to its future

By Jon Swartz

As it seeks to cut costs and retain subscribers, Netflix has found a cheap, bingeable hit in decade-old cable drama

Could a decade-plus-old, moderately successful cable show help Netflix Inc.'s business -- even reshape its content strategy?

"Suits" was a cult hit on USA Network for nine years and 134 episodes starting in 2011, co-starring a then-unknown Meghan Markle as a paralegal. Since being added to Netflix's (NFLX) TV roster on June 17, it has landed on its Top-10 weekly list three times and turned more than a few heads at the streaming powerhouse.

By July 27, demand for "Suits" peaked at 28 times more than the average series' U.S. audience, up 67% since the show's debut on Netflix, according to data provided to MarketWatch by Parrot Analytics.

What's more, in the past 30 days, "Suits" performance ranks in the top 99% of shows in the drama genre, according to Parrot Analytics. Its appeal is split about equally by gender (55% female), with those 23 to 39 years old making up the vast majority of the audience, at 72.1%.

"'Suits' definitely benefits from its formulaic episodes," Parrot analyst Wade Payson-Denney said in an interview. "It's the kind of series that you can turn on in the background while working on household chores." Viewers of "Suits," he added, are also likely to watch sitcoms such as "Young Sheldon" and procedurals such as "Criminal Minds," "The Blacklist" and "NCIS."

Set at a legal firm in New York, "Suits" follows the court cases of Harvey (Gabriel Macht) and Mike (Patrick J. Adams), the latter of whom was a college dropout who never attended law school but passed the bar. The show dollops equal parts comedy, drama and suspense, which gives it algorithmic appeal to a wider audience. Most important, the supporting cast includes future duchess of Sussex Markle as ambitious, talented paralegal Rachel Zane, and slimy character Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman), a paranoid, nefarious corporate attorney.

The news cycle could also be benefiting the show: National interest in crooked lawyers, convoluted conspiracies and dramatic cases is rising, at a time when Donald Trump has been indicted four times and faces multiple criminal trials. The former president is expected to be arraigned this week in Atlanta, where his mug shot is likely to be taken.

How else can one explain the widespread appeal of a prototypical American legal drama series like so many over the past several decades?

There is precedent. Shows like "Suits," "You" and "Gilmore Girls" that enjoyed modest success during their original cable runs have "found new life when they were rebroadcast in binge format on Netflix," Mark Vena, principal analyst at SmartTech Research, said in an interview.

"Netflix has an uncanny way of resurrecting mediocre content when it was originally broadcast," Vena said. "'Suits' is a great example. It is not exactly 'Hill Street Blues' or 'St. Elsewhere' from a breakthrough dramatic content standpoint, but it is popular."

It also fits snugly in Netflix's plans to rein in content costs without hemorrhaging viewers. The show's popular run on Netflix underscores the appeal of lower-cost, second-tier programming at a time when subscriptions are down and content costs are rising amid writers' and actors' strikes in Hollywood.

Netflix executives said the company intends to spend $17 billion on content in 2023, up slightly from 2022. But the success of "Suits" lifts the pressure on Netflix to spend lavishly in search of hits,Vena and others point out.

In an era when most original series on Netflix and other streaming services consist of six- to12-episode seasons, the long, multi-season tale of "Suits" is offering the ultimate in binge viewing. And it is leading to viewer discovery of other shows, according to Payson-Denney.

Buzzy older series like "Suits" and "Ugly Betty" -- which Netflix added this month -- and their longer seasons could increasingly round out a programming slate built around Netflix's short-form seasons, such as "Heartstopper" and "The Lincoln Lawyer," and its wildly popular licensed shows, such as "CSI," "Seinfeld" and "Breaking Bad."

Other streaming services have followed suit, so to speak.

"Suits" is also available on Comcast Corp.'s (CMCSA) Peacock. "You," a 5-year-old Lifetime psychological thriller that debuted on Netflix in late 2019, is available to buy on Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) Apple TV. The final season of "Suits" is also available on Amazon.com Inc.'s (AMZN) Prime Video.

This is particularly eye-opening in an industry coping with dwindling subscriber numbers at Netflix and Walt Disney Co. (DIS), which have raised prices and cracked down on password sharing to reduce streaming-related costs and increase profitability as strikes roil Hollywood.

Read more: Disney+ and Hulu prices are changing -- here's how much your streaming plan will soon cost

-Jon Swartz

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08-22-23 0831ET

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