USA Network Remembers Original Scripted Series Suit Them

After a few years of being reduced to just 'Chucky', it’s going to be a very “characters welcome back” time

Recent years have seen original scripted programming on cable greatly reduced. Even outside of what the Discovery regime has done to TBS and TNT, it can be seen in AMC’s non-Walking Dead shows becoming sparse, and other networks such as Freeform, are Comedy Central and Syfy. Syfy is down to five scripted originals, but it’s been worse for another NBCUniversal network: USA Network, with whom Syfy shares what is the former’s sole scripted original, Chucky.

With Suits’s record-breaking dominance on Netflix this year and Friday marking the release of Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie on Peacock, Deadline is reporting that the network is looking to return to a heavier investment in original programming harkening back to that “blue sky” era as its called. And no that doesn’t mean rebooting every series, though if they were the actual starting point would be the series of Psych films trying to get a fourth going. And apparently there’s another Suits spin-off in development. It just means wholly new “light, frothy character-based” procedurals in the mold of those series as well as Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, and Burn Notice.

Apparently, after the Writers Guild of America strike ended, the company’s scripted executives began dipping their toes, armed with several ideas in consideration for development. While there are no deals yet, they’re aiming to premiere the first series of this batch in 2025, so in under two years.

The “blue sky” era is named such because that class of dramas was shot on-location in its own places across the globe. It was an era that made them a quality destination for original programming, landing them as the #1 cable entertainment network for 14 years, understandably a record with how much the television landscape has changed. Cable could barely bask in their awards dominance before streaming swooped in. It should probably be acknowledged that the programming volume cuts have been attributed to cord-cutting and declines in linear viewership. Apparently Peacock has been really good for these shows, though that’s probably helped by being more actively tracked than on Prime Video, which was their pre-Peacock home, and some are still there. 

That includes Mr. Robot, a series credited with solidifying USA’s shift away from “blue sky” and toward darker, grittier stories to catch younger viewers and more awards recognition along the way, with such programming as The Sinner, Shooter, the rather successful run of Queen of the South. This, as could surmise by the timeline, was what ended up as the last image of USA original scripted programming before this dormancy. Bringing it back to the current cable landscape, the cancellations of Freeform’s Good Trouble after five seasons, Cruel Summer after two, and AMC’s Lucky Hank with Bob Odenkirk after one, were all announced as this was being written. It is unknown whether Freeform will remain committed to scripted programming, as these and recently-canceled Praise Petey were their last three on their slate.

Source: Deadline (1, 2), The Hollywood Reporter