Meghan Markle’s show Suits wins viewers as it becomes a hit on Netflix – four years after it was axed from TV

Suits, the legal drama which starred the Duchess of Sussex, has become the unlikely hit of the summer after launching on Netflix earlier this year.  

Meghan Markle, 41, starred as paralegal Rachel Zane in Suits from 2010 until her last episode was aired in April 2018, a month before her wedding at Windsor Castle.

Following her exit from the show Meghan remained friendly with a posee of her former co-stars attending her wedding to Prince Harry, including Gabriel Macht, Abigail Spencer, Sarah Rafferty, and Patrick J Adams.

The show came to an end in 2019, but appears to have been given a second life after it was released on the streaming service back in June.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the series set a viewing time record for an acquired series in the week of June 26-July 2, with 3.14 billion minutes of watch time.

Suits, the legal drama which starred the Duchess of Sussex, has become the unlikely hit of the summer after launching on Netflix earlier this year

Season one began with an average of 4.6 million viewers in 2011. 

However ratings consistently dipped since the start, even with Meghan in the show.

Meghan and her co-star Patrick (Mike Ross) both left the show at the end of season seven. 

The final episode of that season saw Rachel and Mike finally tie the knot , before leaving for Seattle. 

According to FOX News, the return of season 8, (which excluded Meghan and Patrick), averaged with 1.2 million viewers, 100,000 less than its seventh season.

The series was axed in January 2019 after the ninth 10 episodes long instalment, after losing a significant amount of viewers.

The official line on why the show was axed was unclear, but the series has lost viewers after Meghan quit. 

At the time, Chris McCumber, president of USA Network and SYFY, said: ‘Suits has played an instrumental role in our network’s DNA for nearly a decade.

‘I and everyone at USA Network sincerely thank Aaron Korsh, our partners at UCP and the entire Suits family for their tremendous creativity, devotion and support over a truly amazing run.’

Meghan Markle, 41, starred as paralegal Rachel Zane in Suits from 2010 until her last episode was aired in April 2018, a month before her wedding at Windsor Castle

Meghan is understood to have loved playing her stylish lawyer alter-ego, and felt like ‘a kid in a candy store’ when it came to picking out her outfits.

Celebrity costume designer Jolie Andreatta explained previously: ‘Meghan and I loved Rachel’s clothes. We’d always say that, if we could, we would live in Rachel’s clothes. Designing Rachel’s look was like being a kid in a candy store.’

When she stepped down from acting to join the Royal Family, Meghan insisted that rather than dwelling on the end of her career, she would commit herself to making a change in the world with her humanitarian work.

Many viewers have been going wild over the programme on social media, with one commenting: ‘Suits is so good but all of these people are EXHAUSTING.’

Meanwhile another wrote: ‘Suits is actually a good show, I don’t know how it took me so long to tune in.’

Despite the surge of viewership on Netflix, it seems many have had a mixed response to the legal drama 

A third added: ‘Twitter fam, how is it you guys didn’t tell me about Suits…this show is good!’

‘Netflix is airing the show Suits,’ another commented. ‘I know I’m late, never saw this before.

‘This is a really good show, why did no one tell me?’ 

One wrote: ‘Just started binging Suits on Netflix. Would highly recommend, but it’s a bit surreal seeing Meghan before her royal era.’ 

However despite the show’s popularity on the streaming service, not all the reviews of the programme are positive.

One viewer commented: ‘Suits be having me so stressed. These are the most emotional people on earth.

‘Mike Ross is the most annoying/worst character in all TV. Followed closely by Rachel. They belong together like a trash can next to a recycle bin.’ 

Another wrote: ‘Unpopular opinion: Suits is ridiculously bad. Maybe it’s because of my legal background, but being a lawyer isn’t about striking poses. It’s outrageously unrealistic. 

‘The ethical violations are mindblowing.’

The surge in viewers for Meghan’s show comes as experts said Prince Harry has ‘begun to lose his star power’ and has become a ‘lightning rod for negative PR’ 

The surge in viewers for Meghan’s show comes as experts said Prince Harry has ‘begun to lose his star power’ and has become a ‘lightning rod for negative PR’.

The Duke of Sussex’s sustainable tourism project Travelsyt announced that it has entered an ‘incredibly exciting’ era with a new board of directors – with no mention of the royal.

The independent non-profit organisation based in London was launched by the Duke of Sussex in 2019, when he was still a working royal, with wife Meghan Markle.

Harry spent three years as the public face of the initiative to encourage the tourism industry to become more sustainable – despite a furore over his use of private jets.

But he was left out of a major announcement by the group in May about its transition from a ‘pilot phase’ to a new board of five people with ‘world-class expertise’.

PR experts said today that Harry had become a ‘polarising figure’ and business would ‘second think their association’ with him amid the ‘negativity’ after his book Spare.

Brand and culture expert Nick Ede told MailOnline: ‘There is a problem with brand Harry and that’s that in the space of only a few years he has begun to lose his star power, authenticity and ability to elevate brands and good causes he believes in.’