There are several likely reasons for the failure of the Suits spinoff Pearson. Suits is a legal drama that ran on the USA Network that ran for nine seasons between 2011 and 2019. It featured an ensemble cast that included Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams, Rick Hoffman, Meghan Markle, Sarah Rafferty, Gina Torres, Amanda Schull, Dulé Hill, and Katherine Heigl. When the first eight seasons came to Netflix in 2023, the show became a major streaming hit, breaking records for an acquired show and racking up billions of minutes viewed across Netflix and Peacock (which had the full nine seasons).

While the success that came four years after the show’s finale was huge, it didn’t extend to its spinoff Pearson, which was introduced via a backdoor pilot in the Suits season 7 finale, titled “Good-Bye.” The 2019 show, which also aired on the USA Network, featured a cast that included Torres, Bethany Joy Lenz, Simon Kassianides, Eli Goree, Chantel Riley, Morgan Spector, and Isabel Arraiza. Unlike the successful flagship show, it only ran for one season before going off the air.

What Pearson Was About (& How It Tied Into Suits)

Pearson Brought A Major Suits Character To Chicago

Pearson centered on the exploits of one of Suits‘ major characters, Jessica Pearson. Pearson, the managing partner who gave her name to the show’s central law firm Pearson Hardman, was part of the main cast of the first seven seasons of the show. For the most part, the 10-episode freshman season of the spinoff ran concurrently with the 10 episodes of Suits season 9, though it ended one week earlier than the flagship show, allowing the longer-running show space to wrap up its story without distractions from the monumental occasion.

The spinoff followed Pearson after her own disgraced exit from the firm. After being disbarred, she moved from New York City to Chicago and became a fixer for The Windy City’s mayor. Although Torres did not appear on Suits during the final season, and indeed had a cameo cut from the series finale, the spinoff did feature several cameos from stars of the flagship show. The most important guest appearances on Pearson were Gabriel Macht reprising his role as Harvey Specter and Rick Hoffman appearing as Louis Litt.

Why Pearson Was Canceled After Just One Season

Pearson Only Lasted 10 Episodes

Pearson should by all means have been a bigger success, especially considering the fact that it was well-received critically, earning a Fresh 72% score on Rotten Tomatoes alongside an audience score of 79%. Both of those scores landed below all but two of the eighteen Rotten Tomatoes scores given to all nine Suits seasons, which frequently earned 100% scores from critics and scores above 90% from users, but both of the spinoff’s scores are firmly Fresh in their own right. Below, see a breakdown of the shows’ Rotten Tomatoes scores over the years:

Ultimately, it seems that the factor that doomed Pearson was its ratings rather than anything to do with the show’s quality or how it was received. Per TVLine, the show brought in an average of 513,000 viewers, which was almost exactly half the number that Suits season 9 was earning on average. This was lower than any USA Network drama at the time other than the final season of Mr. Robot (which averaged 360,000 viewers) in addition to its Live+Same Day demo rating of 0.1 being the absolute lowest for the network.

Although the Pearson backdoor pilot garnered 1.07 million viewers, only .57 million watched the series premiere. It largely maintained that number as the show went on, though it dropped to a low of .44 million in episode 7. The fact that it never gained viewership and its series finale had just .49 million viewers, compared to the .86 million who watched the Suits finale, seems to have put the nail in the coffin for the show.

What Went Wrong With Suits’ Pearson Spinoff

Pearson Couldn’t Recapture The Magic Of Suits

There are several major reasons that are most likely behind the swift cancellation of Pearson. The first is the fact that it took place in an entirely different milieu from Suits. While the character of Jessica Pearson would have been recognizable to any long-term viewer of the flagship show and the show followed her character arc from where she left off, it likely did not feel the same. Jessica Pearson did have opportunities to use some of her legal skills in her new position, but the show was more reminiscent of a political program like Scandal than a legal drama.

Pearson‘s debut was also tremendously ill-timed. Because it premiered more than a year after the backdoor pilot aired, the entirety of Suits season 8 had come and gone before the promised spinoff actually materialized. By this time, audiences may have lost interest in the promise of the show altogether. By airing alongside the final season of the flagship show, it also likely suffered from general fatigue with the franchise. Additionally, it came at a time before the Suits streaming success made the show a household name once again, instead existing entirely during the time of the franchise’s worst doldrums.

What Pearson’s Failure Means For Suits’ New Spinoff

Suits: L.A. Is In The Works At NBC

The failure of Pearson could potentially affect the fate of the upcoming spinoff Suits: L.A. The show, which is set to star Stephen Amell, Josh McDermitt, Lex Scott Davis, Bryan Greenberg, and Troy Winbush, was put into development by NBC in the wake of the original show becoming a smash hit on streaming. While it is a proper legal drama, it transfers the action from New York to Los Angeles and so far doesn’t center on any characters from the original show, which could be dangerous considering the precedent set by the previous spinoff.

This may be the reason that the network has so far been cautious about the show. While a pilot for the spinoff was ordered in February, at the time of writing it has not been officially ordered to series. The fact that Pearson failed to draw a huge audience could be making executives skittish, which may mean the Los Angeles-based show will be delayed in an attempt to strike at the exact right time, or scrapped altogether if interest in an entirely different version of the show rather than a proper Suits revival never materializes.

Source: TVLine