The BBC has acquired Suits, the smash legal drama that was the most-watched show on Netflix last year. The corporation has acquired a trio of titles from NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution for BBC iPlayer including St. Denis Medical and The Best Man: The Final Chapters.
After a record-breaking run atop the streaming charts in the summer and fall, Suits can claim one more milestone at the end of 2023: It’s the most-streamed show over the course of a year in the (admittedly brief) history of Nielsen’s rankings. Also, Apple’s Ted Lasso scores a surprise No. 1 ranking among original series.
Though the legal drama racked up another 682M viewing minutes from Nov. 27 to Dec. 3, that wasn’t enough to be among the 10 most-watched streaming titles in the week after Thanksgiving. However, it did manage to remain on the acquired title list at No. 6. This marks the first time since June that Suits hasn’t claimed a spot on the Top 10, since eight of nine seasons landed on Netflix. Young Sheldon took first place on the overall list during this measurement period, up from fourth place the week prior.
For the first time since June, Suits did not manage to surpass 1 billion minutes viewed during the week of October 23-29. With 997 million minutes viewed, the USA Network legal drama came in second on Nielsen’s streaming charts during this interval. This brings to an end its 18-week streak of reaching over 1 billion minutes, which, while impressive, is actually not the record holder. Audiences also took some time to commemorate the life of Matthew Perry, following the actor’s sudden death on Oct. 28. In just the few hours until this interval closed, Friends tallied 583M minutes viewed, pushing it to No. 7 on the acquired titles list.
Suits continued its first place run on Nielsen’s Top 10 Streaming chart for the 14th week, raking in 1.4 billion minutes viewed during the Sept. 25-Oct. 1 viewing window after previously falling to second place during the Sept. 11-17 viewing window. Love is Blind jumped on the chart following the release of Season 5, which premiered on Netflix on Sept. 22.
Creator Aaron Korsh is developing a drama set in the same world as the former USA show turned streaming breakout.
Surprising no one, Suits is the No. 1 title on Nielsen’s weekly streaming rankings for the Aug. 28-Sept. 3 viewing window. With 2.5 billion minutes watched, this is the 11th week in a row that the long-concluded USA Network drama has taken the top position thanks to its addition to Netflix in June. But One Piece, the No. 2 title of the week, still managed to impress. Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the popular manga of the same name debuted within the last four days of this viewing period and clocked 1.3 billion minutes watched.
Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building leapt onto Nielsen’s streaming charts for the week of August 7 to August 13. With the debut of Season 3, the series racked up 719M viewing minutes, making it to No. 9 on the overall Top 10 and No. 3 among streaming originals. According to Nielsen, the audience for Only Murders was a “carbon copy” of the series that’s been dominating streaming for the past eight weeks — Suits. That series had another impressive week with 3B viewing minutes once again across Netflix and Peacock.
Harvey and Donna’s curious can opener is not about to make a comeback, Suits fans. In a social media conversation with fans Sunday, Suits creator Aaron Korsh answered a few burning questions about his old USA Network drama but made it clear that no one is talking about reviving the Gabriel Macht/Patrick J. Adams drama, no matter how well old episodes are rocking Netflix and Peacock right now.
The legal drama sets a new viewing time mark for acquired series for the fourth week in a row.
As WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes persist and tens of thousands of people withhold labor in pursuit of equitable streaming residuals, fair compensation, proper staffing of writers’ rooms, protections from the use of artificial intelligence, and more, a surprising series is emerging as the show of the summer: Suits.
Netflix and Peacock have a hot commodity on their hands with Suits. The USA Network series debuted on both platforms in June and subsequently broke a Nielsen streaming record for acquired programming. Well, Suits has now broken that same record two weeks in a row after racking up 3.7 billion viewing minutes during the week of July 3-9. That’s up an impressive 17% from the previous measurement week, when the series first broke the record for most-watched acquired content in a single week with 3.1 billion minutes viewed.
Nearly four years after its last new episode aired, Suits is having a moment in the streaming world. The former USA Network series set a viewing time record for an acquired series in the week of June 26-July 2. Suits had 3.14 billion minutes of watch time, according to Nielsen, easily surpassing the previous mark of 2.49 billion minutes for Manifest (before it became a Netflix original) in June 2021. The show became available on Netflix June 23; it also streams on Peacock.