It wasn’t just Meghan Markle: How ‘Suits’ really made streaming history 4 years later

“Fits” is shattering streaming data — however sequence creator Aaron Korsh mentioned it’s not all attributable to curiosity about forged member Meghan Markle, aka The Duchess of Sussex.

“I feel it’s a multi-tiered impact,” Korsh, 56, advised The Submit.

“A couple of month earlier than [‘Suits’] confirmed up on Netflix I began listening to from many individuals … saying that their teenage son or daughter noticed the [‘Suits’] interview scene with Mike [Patrick J. Adams] and Harvey [Gabriel Macht] on TikTok and began watching the sequence — and now all their associates are hooked on it … like seniors in highschool and freshmen in school.”

“Suits” aired on USA Community from 2011-2019 (9 seasons) and Markle — who performed paralegal-turned-lawyer Rachel Zane — met and married Prince Harry towards the latter a part of its run. (She didn’t return for the sequence finale attributable to apparent causes.)

All 9 seasons of “Fits” have streamed on Peacock for a number of years — Season 9 can be out there on Prime Video — but it surely wasn’t till early July, when it debuted on Netflix within the US, that it actually took off. It snared 3.1 billion viewing minutes in its opening week on Netflix and Peacock and three.7 billion viewing minutes the next week — a brand new streaming file for an acquired sequence (versus an authentic present).

It’s now spent seven weeks within the Top 10 streaming series on Netflix.

“One way or the other it obtained scorching on TikTok after which, when it obtained on Netflix, they may recommend/push a present on you and that was an enormous factor,” Korsh mentioned. “And, clearly, there’s some element of individuals being fascinated to see what Meghan was like earlier than she was married to Harry. I feel it’s kind of a mixture of these three issues.

“Look, I like the truth that Meghan is now serving to us,” Korsh mentioned. “I feel she did a tremendous job on the present and I like that folks can see her. The rationale I don’t assume that’s the one purpose [for the viewership spike] is that she’s been married to Harry for a few years and ‘Fits’ has been on the market for a few years — and, for no matter purpose, individuals began watching it this summer time.

“To me, no matter will get individuals to observe, I’ll take it.”

Because the sequence creator, Korsh is a “revenue participant” in “Fits” however mentioned he’s not consulted relating to its streaming choices. “They need to, kind of someday after the very fact, present me who they offered it to and what it offered for,” he mentioned. “My understanding on the time we offered it to Amazon was that the studio, UCP, had a alternative whether or not to promote to Netflix or Amazon as a result of Peacock didn’t exist then.

“I imagine Amazon was providing far more cash, however on Netflix there was the likelihood we might explode within the scores like we’re doing now,” he mentioned. “I used to be not upset on the time that it went to Amazon as a result of they had been paying a ton of cash and it helped us maintain the present on the air and finally helped me make more cash — and now it appears like we’re getting one of the best of each worlds.”

Korsh pooh-poohed the concept of a “Fits” reunion film or followup sequence and agreed with govt producer Gene Klein that Markle might by no means return in any iteration.

“To my data, there’s been no discuss from the studio or any community in our path,” he mentioned. “When ‘Fits’ was over, I used to be extremely happy with the run we had and I wasn’t wishing we had extra [seasons]. I wasn’t craving to do extra. It’s not my artistic aim to do a ‘Fits’ film; I feel it could be enjoyable however I’ve different tasks I wish to do.

“I’ll concur with Gene Klein that [if the scenario presented itself] I’d like to have Meghan again, like I mentioned once we had been doing the [series] finale,” he mentioned. “However I can not see a practical world the place she would have the ability to do this and I’d not need to put her within the place of getting to go on it.”