21 Sep From ‘Suits’ To Nuts, Streaming Residuals Explained [Deadline]
BY KATIE CAMPIONE
September 21, 2023 | About six weeks after the Writers Guild of America went on strike for the first time in more than 15 years, eight seasons of Suits landed on Netflix.
All nine seasons had already been available on Peacock, but the “Netflix effect” rapidly proved itself once again. The streamer unexpectedly struck gold.
In its first week on Netflix, Suits clocked 2.3 billion viewing minutes across both platforms, according to Nielsen streaming data. Its reign would continue for the rest of the summer, as the title soared above 3B viewing minutes the next week and stayed there for nearly two months. As of Nielsen’s latest report, Suits is still performing unfathomably well, tallying 2.7B viewing minutes during the week of August 20.
Suits isn’t the first series to find new life on Netflix, and it certainly will not be the last. But although the deal with Netflix had likely been made well before the strike, the timing couldn’t have been more prophetic. As writers — and eventually the actors — were marching in the summer heat for better pay, especially from streaming residuals, Suits became a perfect case study.