Why Stephen Amell's Suits LA Was Canceled By NBC

The NBC corporate legal series "Suits" was a huge hit, running for nine seasons before ending in 2019 and earning a pretty decent following on streaming. Unfortunately, it has not been able to spark any successful spin-offs just yet. In 2019, the USA series "Pearson," which followed Gina Torres's character Jessica Pearson as she entered the world of Chicago politics, was canceled after just one season. Now, the second such spin-off, the NBC series "Suits LA," has been canceled after only one season as well. People absolutely loved the New York attorney antics of "Suits," so why didn't the Los Angeles version seem to pan out?

Despite bringing back some of the original cast from the flagship series, including Gabriel Macht's Harvey Specter, and having some pretty big-name guest stars to help fill out the world of celebrity lawyer Ted Black (Stephen Amell), "Suits LA" just couldn't live up to the charm of the original, with some bizarre plot twists right from the jump making the show kind of a weird mess. The series earned a poor critical reception to boot and it seems that audiences weren't impressed much either, resulting in its premature death.

According to Deadline, the series was canceled due to its low viewership, even as the original "Suits" continues to do very well for itself on Netflix. Even NBC's attempt to try and give the show a bump by hosting a "Suits LA" takeover with a repeat marathon in March didn't do much to help. The LA setting itself meant that series creator Aaron Korsh, who also created the original "Suits," could really play with celebrity cameos and hopefully draw in more viewers, but even guest stars like the late John Amos, Victoria Justice, Patton Oswalt, and Yvette Nicole Brown could only do so much when it came to attracting viewers. (There were hints that Denzel Washington might make a cameo at some point too, as a client of Black's, but now it seems like that will never pan out.)

While it's kind of a bummer that neither of the "Suits" spin-offs to date have managed to get a second season, especially given the fact that the first season of the flagship show was its weakest, it's also pretty understandable, given their less-than-stellar critical and audience reception. The show's creatives might have been able to turn "Suits LA" into something more in later seasons, but considering its rather expansive (and probably expensive) cast, NBC probably had to weigh its options and made the more cutthroat call. You know, like the suits themselves might.