Measuring show “ratings” is not really a thing anymore in the modern streaming era, but Nielsen is doing its best to keep up with the changing times with its own streaming charts, where it measures by “minutes watched.”
Now, it turns out that Netflix’s licensing deal for Suits has made the show, which ran for eight seasons starting in 2011 and ending in 2019, one of the most-watched series in the modern era. Nielsen reports that Suits is the first show they’ve measured that has gotten 3 billion minutes of watch time every single week for 7 weeks in a row, bringing its total to 26.5 billion minutes across eight weeks total.
That is not the all-time record, which is held by Stranger Things season 4 with 35.5 billion minutes in eight weeks, but it is the only show to top 3 billion for seven weeks straight. And the more time goes on, and the more staying power Suits continues to show, it may end up passing up Stranger Things yet.
Suits has rarely left Netflix’s top 10 since it arrived on the service (it’s finally gone now), and the reason for its elevation is because A) it’s extremely “watchable” as all those old USA shows used to be, and B) it ran for eight seasons, where most Netflix series, especially new ones, are 6-8 episodes, or a few seasons of 6-8 episodes. There are 134 episodes of Suits. A lot of “minutes watched” potential there.
The success of Suits raises a lot of questions:
1) Could a tenth season of Suits be greenlit because of its massive success here? Even if the show ended four years ago, certainly stranger things have happened, and clearly there’s an appetite here.
2) Could similar shows also find massive success like Suits? I’m thinking specifically of other USA shows from that era like White Collar and Burn Notice which Netflix would probably be wise to secure, if they haven’t yet.
3) Could this lead to Netflix or other streamers trying to recapture the magic of those USA-era shows, which really are not made anymore? Longer seasons, a bit more serialized, very watchable. There’s not much like that airing now, but there’s an obvious desire for it.
4) How underpaid are the cast and crew of Suits in terms of the royalties they’re getting? This is one of the major points of the Writers and Actors Strikes, that if an old show like Suits is finding massive success like this, the residuals writers and actors get from it should be far, far greater than they are, as they’re usually paltry. I have to imagine everyone is getting a tiny fraction of the value that’s been created for Netflix here, if they’re getting anything at all.
We’ll see what stems from all this, but something will, trust me.
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