Stephen Amell Owns Up to Suits L.A. Cancellation
One season and done: Suits: L.A. is canceled, and star Stephen Amell is shouldering most of the blame for the misfire.
Well, that was fast. After Suits spent nine seasons printing money on cable, NBC tried to extend the brand with Suits L.A. Headliner Stephen Amell now says the quiet part out loud about why it did not stick: it just was not good enough.
What Suits L.A. was trying to be
The show centered on Ted Black (Amell), a former New York City federal prosecutor who hits reset in Los Angeles as an entertainment lawyer handling high-powered, high-maintenance clients while juggling his own mess. It launched in February 2025 with a 13-episode season and only light connective tissue to the original series.
There was one big crossover: Gabriel Macht popped in as Harvey Specter. The show also sprinkled in real-world faces playing dialed-up versions of themselves, which made for some fun stunt casting even if the core premise felt familiar.
- Gabriel Macht returned as Harvey Specter
- Guest cameos: Brian Baumgartner, Patton Oswalt, Yvette Nicole Brown (as fictionalized versions of themselves)
Critics were rough. Fans did not connect the way they did with Suits in the 2010s, and the early run took a beating in reviews. The back half reportedly fared better as people started to warm up to what the show was doing, but the damage was done. NBC pulled the plug in May 2025 after one season.
Amell takes the blame
On the podcast Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum, Amell did not sidestep it. He owned it.
"Anything that ends not on your terms is a failure."
"The blame rests with me. Whatever problem you have with the show — because I think that there were issues — it is my job to solve those, to smooth them over and to gloss them up with some type of performance or something that, tangible or otherwise, covers up those mistakes. Because you do something that is magnetic, that is charismatic, that fixes those problems. And I did not do that."
That is a rare bit of candor. And, frankly, it tracks with how the season played: a series trying very hard to echo Suits instead of carving out its own identity.
How we got here
After Suits ran nine seasons on USA, the franchise first branched out with Gina Torres in Pearson (2019), following Jessica Pearson into Chicago politics. Suits L.A. was the second swing. It offered a glossier West Coast angle and a different legal sandbox, but minimal ties to the original cast and a copycat vibe made it a tough sell.
What is next for the franchise
TV is in a revival-friendly mood. A new season of Scrubs is reportedly days away, and fresh episodes of Malcolm in the Middle and Baywatch are on the way. If any legal drama has the juice to come back, it is Suits. Whether that means a straight-up Season 10 one day or another spinoff is an open question, but the door is not closed.
If you are curious, Suits L.A.'s first and only season is currently streaming on Peacock.