“Suits” is the first series ever to reach a major audience milestone following its Netflix revival
Suits is the first television show to reach 3 billion minutes watched in seven consecutive weeks.
The legal drama starring Meghan Markle has racked up 26.5 billion minutes watched in the eight weeks since its return to Netflix earlier this summer.
stranger things still holds the record for highest viewership in eight weeks – 35.5 billion minutes in 2022 for season four – but Suits lasted about 3 billion minutes longer than any other program since Nielsen began streaming records three years ago.
The legal drama originally premiered on USA Network between 2011 and 2019 and aired in the UK on Dave.
It’s about a lawyer named Mike (played by Patrick J. Adams) who gets a job at a prestigious New York law firm even though he never studied law. Markle also plays a lawyer (named Rachel Zane) who falls in love with Mike.
The now Duchess of Sussex played lawyer Rachel for seven seasons before exiting in 2018 ahead of her royal wedding to Prince Harry. In 2016, she began a romantic relationship with the prince.
This was announced last month Suits According to Nielsen data, the film broke its own record for most-watched acquired title with 3.7 billion minutes watched between July 3 and July 9 on Netflix and Peacock.
Meghan Markle as Rachel Zane in the seventh season of Suits
(USA Network/Netflix/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
In an interview with the LA Times, Suits Creator Aaron Korsch attributed the series’ renewed success in part to Markle’s role in the royal family.
In another interview, he recalled a line that the royal family had requested to be deleted.
“My wife’s family uses the word ‘poppycock’ when they have a topic to discuss that might be sensitive,” he explained.
“Let’s say you wanted to do something that you knew your husband didn’t want to do, but you wanted to at least discuss it, and by just discussing it, you wouldn’t hold him to anything he said that would you be like, ‘It’s Poppycock.'”
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Korsch continued: “So, Mike and Rachel in the episode [Markle’s character] We wanted something, and as a nod to my in-laws, we wanted her to say, “My family would say Poppycock.” And the royal family didn’t want her to say that. They didn’t want to put the word “Poppycock” in her mouth.
“I guess because they didn’t want people to say she said ‘dick.’ So we had to change it to “Bulls***” instead of “Poppycock” and I didn’t like it because I told my in-laws that [poppycock] would be on the show. There may have been one or two other things, but I can’t remember.”
Korsch added that he wasn’t sure how or through which channels the royal family obtained the scripts for his show. “I was aware that they were reading them because I received the feedback, but I don’t remember the process by which they received it,” he said.
Suits returned to Netflix on June 17 – the day of King Charles III’s birthday parade.