Suits renewed for farewell season on USA Network

Suits is suiting down!

USA Network has renewed the long-running legal drama for a 10-episode ninth and final season.

The last holdover of the network’s blue-skies era programming, Suits is currently in the middle of its eighth season, which resumes Wednesday and explores how maverick lawyer Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) and the rest of the constantly renamed firm are faring now that Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman) has become managing partner. Donna’s (Sarah Rafferty) new love interest will also be another source of drama for both Harvey and the firm in the last six episodes of the season, too.

The news of Suits‘ end comes almost a year after it lost original cast members Patrick J. Adams and Meghan Markle, who left the show at the end of season 7. Adams played the show’s protagonist Mike Ross, a college dropout with a photographic memory that Harvey hired as a lawyer, and Markle starred as paralegal-turned-lawyer Rachel Zane, who ended up falling in love with the fraudulent lawyer. The duo’s run on the show ended with their characters getting married.

Even though Suits is ending, its world may continue after it’s gone because of the forthcoming Chicago-set spin-off Pearson, which is centered on Torres’ character and expected to premiere sometime this year.

Here’s creator Aaron Korsh’s full statement on the end of Suits:

“Though I know it isn’t true, it seems like only yesterday USA Network took a chance on an unestablished writer’s very first hour long script. These days that’s a common thing, but forty seven years ago when I first wrote the Untitled Korsh Project, nobody did it. Nobody except the people at USA and UCP. First and foremost I would like to thank Alex Sepiol and Dennis Kim, without whom Suits would never have gotten made. I also cannot thank Bill McGoldrick, Jeff Wachtel, Bonnie Hammer, Chris McCumber, Ted Chervin, Dave Bartis, Gene Klein, Doug Liman, Dawn Olmstead and everyone at the network and studio enough for their dedication and support throughout the years. And to the exceptional writers, cast and crew – thank you for your passion and devotion, without which, Suits would be nothing. And last but never least, to the fans who have stuck with the Suits family through thick and thin, through can-openers and flashbacks – thank you for always speaking your mind. Without you, I might start to think I’m getting the hang of this writing thing. And once that happens, nobody wins. I look forward to enraging and hopefully sometimes delighting you with the final episodes. Finally, to my wife Kate and my children Cooper and Lucy. Thank you for enduring countless late nights and times away, for me to get to live my dream. I love you. Love, Aaron”

Suits — which also Sarah Rafferty, Katherine Heigl, Dulé Hill, and Amanda Schull — Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on USA Network.

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