Why Suits Spinoff Pearson Avoided Cameos From Old Characters
The "Suits" renaissance continues over at Netflix where viewers are continuing to binge eight seasons of the legal drama at an alarming rate. There are actually nine seasons of "Suits" in total, but fans will have to go elsewhere to see how things wrap up, at least for the time being. At the end of season 7, Harvey (Gabriel Macht) travels to Chicago after his former partner Jessica Pearson (Gina Torres) left their law firm, Pearson Darby Specter, to work as a fixer for newly elected Mayor, Bobby Novak (Morgan Spector). The dark history of Chicago politics is filled with backroom deals orchestrated by corrupt politicians that could make for compelling TV, leading the USA Network to greenlight the "Suits" spinoff "Pearson."
Hoping to expand on the success of "Suits" and capitalize on Torres' beaming star power, "Pearson" struggled to find the same success and was unceremoniously canceled after just one season. Now that Netflix has resurrected "Suits" after its initial run ended in 2019, completists will want to seek out "Pearson" to see what one of the standout characters has been up to after being disbarred midway through season 6 after defending Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams), who has been pretending he's a real lawyer since the start of the series.
Those planning to give "Pearson" another shot at success should do well to go in with a little bit of forewarned caution. The original main characters of "Suits," including Harvey, Mike, Louis, and Donna are barely even mentioned in the spinoff. Co-created by "Suits" masterminds Aaron Korsh and Daniel Arkin, "Pearson" needed to establish its own footing before bringing in other beloved characters, although there were some ideas for a potential crossover that sadly never came to fruition.
What could have been
If the overall plan was to eventually incorporate other characters from "Suits" into the overall story arc of "Pearson," the initial seeds were there. Harvey and Louis are both featured over two phone calls and Donna is briefly mentioned as well. Ultimately, Korsh left it up to Arkin as the executive producer of "Pearson" to decide how much overlap the two shows should have right out of the gate. Korsch told TV Guide the following:
"I would leave it to [Arkin] to kind of decide what he wants to do moving forward, but I could see any one of these characters either temporarily. Permanently might be a little bit more difficult, that's from my point of view. If he wanted to do what I would support it."
For fans of the later seasons in "Suits," there was also a chance that Robert Zane (Wendell Pierce) and Katrina Bennett (Amanda Schull) could have made appearances, given their sordid history with Jessica. Another addition could have added some much-needed fireworks to the struggling spinoff, with Korsch adding a little wishful thinking:
"I would think it would be interesting to see Samantha Wheeler go over there, because I'd love to see a scene between Samantha and Jessica. I just think it would be great."
Played by Katherine Heigl, Samantha Wheeler was a merciless lawyer serving as Zane's top adviser at the competing law firm of Rand, Kaldor & Zane. Seeing Jessica and Samantha sparring again in "Pearson" may have been the spark the show needed.
The crossover that never happened
For a spinoff to really work, there has to be some connective tissue to the original show. "Friends" failed to create enough interest around its spinoff, "Joey," that tracked Matt LeBlanc's character moving out to Los Angeles to become a star. If "Joey" had lasted long enough, maybe there would have been a few cameos from Chandler or Rachel on the horizon. "Frasier" managed to stay on the air long enough to feature all but one main actor from "Cheers" to appear during its run, and the new "Frasier" revival series on Paramount+ is continuing his story after nearly 20 years off the air.
From the beginning, "Pearson" was never really designed to last multiple seasons, seeming more like a soft attempt at recreating Shonda Rhimes' "Scandal" starring Kerry Washington. According to Korsh, "Pearson" had to find its own identity, telling Deadline:
"I feel like it needs to establish its world and its tone and its characters firmly before even contemplating one of the 'Suits' series regulars becoming any kind of part of that show."
Korsch also teased a potential crossover that never ended up happening. "We did contemplate having a phone call in the back six of 'Suits' where one of our characters calls Jessica or something like that and then when the spinoff is on, you continue her side of that phone call," he revealed. "But we weren't 100 percent sure when these things were going to be airing so it was like, you'd be hearing Jessica's side of that phone call possibly months after you'd be seeing our side and would it be weird, so we ended up not doing it."
Whether those kinds of small connections to "Suits" would have been enough to justify a second season of "Pearson" remains unclear. The failed show certainly hasn't hurt the "Suits" brand and maybe the renewed interest in the series could help give a streaming bump to "Pearson," which is available to watch over on Peacock.