‘Suits’ Writers Slam Netflix for ‘Pretty Sad’ Residual Checks as Show Surges in Popularity

usmagazine.com:

Suits recently became a massive hit on streaming services — but its writers claim that success hasn’t trickled down to their paychecks.Sisters Lilla and Nora Zuckerman, who worked as writers and producers on season 4 and 5 of the USA Network show, broke down their recent residual earnings to help explain why Hollywood’s writers and actors are currently on strike.Lilla told Decider that she “received $12,568.57 in residuals” in 2016 for the season 5 episode “Blowback,” which premiered in January of that year. “I imagine it was probably being sold internationally and re-airing on USA,” she said in an interview published on Thursday, August 10. “This year, 2023, where Suits has been viewed for billions and billions of hours on Netflix, I received the grand total of $414.26 on that episode.”Suits aired its ninth and final season in 2019, but the legal drama has seen a huge resurgence in popularity since moving in June from Prime Video to Netflix, which hosts the show’s first eight seasons.

Peacock, meanwhile, offers the entire series. For the week of June 29, Suits racked up more than 3 billion minutes of viewing on the two platforms, marking a Nielsen streaming chart record for an acquired title.In order to view the video, please allow Manage CookiesThe numbers are certainly impressive, but Nora and Lilla say they haven’t seen much of an increase in their residual payments. “It’s really hard to sort through all these checks, because you get dozens of them that are, like, $7 here, $30 there and so forth,” Lilla explained. “But that’s with Suits airing on two different major streaming platforms.

It’s this blockbuster hit, and I received a grand total of $414 for it.”Nora, for her part, added, “You hope that maybe some magical