Ahead of the “Suits” Season 8 winter premiere, USA Network has announced that the show will return for Season 9, which will bring the lengthy drama to an end. According to Deadline, the legal drama will return for a 10-episode season set to debut in the summer of 2019. With the renewal, “Suits” will become the network’s longest-running original scripted series at 134 episodes. MEGHAN MARKLE: 'SUITS' RATINGS CONTINUE DOWNWARD TREND WITHOUT DUCHESS OF SUSSEX Many fans aren’t surprised by the decision to pull the plug. The show lost three of its principal cast members in recent years. Season 6 saw the departure of Gina Torres while Season 7 wrapped up storylines for main characters Patrick J. Adams and Meghan Markle, who quit the series to marry Prince Harry and become the Duchess of Sussex in a high-profile royal wedding last May. Fortunately, this isn’t the end for the world of “Suits.” Deadline notes that the spinoff series “Pearson,” starring Torres’ character, is set to debut in the spring. 'SUITS' STAR PATRICK J. ADAMS APOLOGIZES FOR BODY SHAMING INCIDENT AFTER THE ROYAL WEDDING “Suits has played an instrumental role in our network’s DNA for nearly a decade,” USA Network and SyFy's president, Chris McCumber, told the outlet in a statement. “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.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The back half of Season 8 premieres on USA Network tonight, but no official release date has been given for when Season 9 will kick off.<doc-sep>Get ready to say your goodbyes to Suits. USA has renewed the legal drama for a 10-episode ninth and final season, the network revealed on Wednesday. Suits is currently airing its eighth season, with the back half of season eight premiering on Wednesday night. The series debuted in 2011, starring Gabriel Macht as a hotshot lawyer and Patrick J. Adams as his Manhattan law firm's new hire -- a guy with a passion for the law but no college degree. The cast, including Rick Hoffman, Meghan Markle, Sarah Rafferty and Gina Torres, went through major changes at the end of season seven, as Adams, Markle and Torres left the show. Katherine Heigl joined Suits in season eight, while recurring stars Dulé Hill and Amanda Schull were promoted to series regulars. Torres went on to receive a spinoff for her character, while Adams and Markle have both been focused on family. Adams recently welcomed his first child with wife Troian Bellisario, and his former onscreen wife is expecting her first baby with her real-life husband, Prince Harry. Meghan Markle Admits to Missing 'Suits' Ahead of New Season's Premiere This video is unavailable because we were unable to load a message from our sponsors. If you are using ad-blocking software, please disable it and reload the page. Meghan Markle Admits to Missing 'Suits' Ahead of New Season's Premiere As for whether the stars would return for the show's farewell season -- including Markle, who was reportedly offered millions in charitable donations to make a cameo appearance -- creator Aaron Korsh said they just haven't figured it out yet. "As of this minute, I don’t know which of our old original cast will be back and which won’t because we’re so early in the season. I can tell you that those things in the papers [about making a charitable donation to get Markle on board], I have no idea what they’re talking about," he told Deadline. "I have not arranged for millions of dollars to be donated to anything on behalf of anyone so that I can tell you, but as far as the original people coming back including [Torres' character], Jessica, we’re so early in the season that we haven’t formulated what we want to do, so we can’t reach out to people before we know what we want to do," he added. Suits returns Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on USA. See more on the show in the video below. RELATED CONTENT: Gina Torres' 'Suits' Spinoff Now Has a Title Meghan Markle Is Welcomed to Auckland With 'Suits' Theme Song 'Suits': Gabriel Macht and Sarah Rafferty See 'Babies' in Harvey and Donna's Future 'Suits' Newcomer Katherine Heigl Dishes on How She Was Cast (Exclusive) This video is unavailable because we were unable to load a message from our sponsors. If you are using ad-blocking software, please disable it and reload the page. Related Gallery<doc-sep>Aaron Korsh was an entry-level TV writer with a couple of credits when he created Suits. The legal drama went on to become a flagship series for USA Network and spawned a spinoff, the upcoming Pearson starring Gina Torres. Now the veteran drama, which returns for the back 6 episodes of its eighth season tonight, has been renewed for a 10-episode ninth and final season. . In an interview with Deadline, Korsh explains how the decision to end Suits was made and gives a glimpse at the plans for the final 10 episodes: would original stars Patrick J. Adams and Meghan Markle return, who else may come back, will there be a time jump, would the final season set up another Suits spinoff, will Harvey and Donna end up together, could Suits cast members migrate to Pearson, does Korsh have an ending in mind for the series and will it be a happy one. Korsh also reveals that a different spinoff, a prequel centered on young Robert Zane, had been discussed and reminisces on Suits’ run, including his favorite scenes. DEADLINE: When was the decision made to end Suits? KORSH: Right after we finished shooting season 6, I went to USA. At that time we only had the cast under contract until the end of season 7. We had to figure out what to do, and we weren’t 100 percent sure what the cast wanted to do. We’d lost Gina and we came up with a plan to extend the cast for two more years beyond season 7 to seasons 8 and 9. The goal was to have a 16-episode season 8 and a 10-episode season 9. During the course of season 7, as they were negotiating the cast’s contracts for two years, an unforeseen thing happened. You can never know that one of your stars is going to marry the Prince of England, and Patrick decided not to return, so we had a choice whether to keep going after season 7. We decided that the original plan was a 16-episode season 8 and a 10-episode season 9, let’s see if we can do that. And dovetailing with that, Katherine Heigl called and she wanted to be involved in the show, and we thought it was a perfect way to help extend the franchise and make it to that end of season 9. DEADLINE: Why a 10-episode final season? KORSH: Our winter runs consist of 6 episodes, so we all felt like it would be very difficult to just have a truncated finale to a season. We always wanted to have the big 10 in the summer, to go out on a high note so to speak. DEADLINE: Being the final chapter, how will the last 10 balance the Suits reboot, launched with Season 8, and reminiscing of the original series, bringing old favorites back? KORSH: I wish I could answer that more fully but the writers room just started about a week ago. Obviously, it is going to be a balance. I don’t want to spend the entire season on reminiscing but also I don’t want to spend none of the season bringing back old favorites so we’re trying to formulate what the balance is going to be. Even in this back six (of Season 8) we have a balance of new and old, with Scottie returning and Hardman returning and Cahill makes an appearance. It’s always been in the lexicon of Suits to bring people back and that’s because I think that’s how life works. People come in and out of your life so we’ve always had a mix of new and old and I think we will continue with that hopefully in a satisfying way. Photo by: Ian Watson/USA Network DEADLINE: And the question many Suits fans would be asking. Would two original cast members, Patrick J. Adams and Meghan Markle who left after Season 7, return? There have been stories in the British tabloids about active attempts to get Meghan, who is married to Prince Harry, to do a cameo, allegedly for millions of dollars to be donated to charity. KORSH: As of this minute I don’t know which of our old original cast will be back and which won’t because we’re so early in the season. I can tell you that those things in the papers, I have no idea what they’re talking about. I have not arranged for millions of dollars to be donated to anything on behalf of anyone so that I can tell you, but as far as the original people coming back including Jessica, we’re so early in the season that we haven’t formulated what we want to do, so we can’t reach out to people before we know what we want to do. DEADLINE: Would Patrick come back? You had left the door open for him to return. Is he in the back 9 of Season 8? KORSH: He is not. When Patrick left, we talked about the notion of him coming back. It had to be right story-wise, and he had to be in a place where he wants to do it, depending on what’s going on with him. In the back six, it didn’t feel right for that. The final 10, you can’t contemplate it without contemplating bringing Mike back. We’re contemplating it and we’ll see where we land, and how Patrick feels. DEADLINE: Any other characters you are considering for the final season? Forstman? KORSH: Forstman is one of my old favorites and always is. We have a list of all the old characters on the board. There’s Travis Tanner, there’s even people from early days like Trevor and Jenny. We’ve been on so long, there’s so many of them. If all you do is bring back old favorites you’ll never push the story forward so you really have to pick and choose and we certainly will be doing that. DEADLINE: You already have one spinoff with Pearson starring Gina Torres. As you are planning the final 10, are you thinking about setting up a potential new spinoff with other Suits characters? KORSH: We’re not setting up a spinoff, that has not been discussed. If at some point in the future we wanted to just do one, we’d probably end up just doing one. It was USA and UCP’s idea to do a spinoff in the first place; It just didn’t occur to me, I guess I don’t think like that. The two spinoffs that we contemplated were this Jessica Pearson spinoff that we’re incredibly excited about and another one, which was more like a prequel idea. It was going to be something that takes place in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s that is Robert Zane graduating from Harvard Law and moving back to his rough-and-tumble town of Harlem and having to make it in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s as a lawyer of color in a white shoe law firm world and had to straddle his two worlds, that he came from and the world that he wanted to enter. It was going to be a prequel and it would have had Robert Zane, Daniel Hardman and Laura Zane in it. We just never pursued that idea anymore once we did the Pearson spinoff. But as I contemplate what I’m going to do after Suits, you never know. DEADLINE: We mentioned Pearson. Any plans to transfer more characters of the original series to join Jessica in Chicago after the mothership ends? KORSH: Certainly not in its first season. The spinoff is its own. It is both connected to and different from Suits, and I feel like it needs to establish its world and its tone and its characters firmly before even contemplating one of the Suits series regulars becoming any kind of part of that show. Now, might there be a surprise or two during the course of the Pearson first season and have a little interaction? That’s always a possibility. DEADLINE: You said interaction. Does it mean crossovers? Is there a crossover in the upcoming episodes of Suits and the first season of Pearson? What about the final 10? KORSH: There is not.<doc-sep>
“Suits” has been renewed for Season 9 at USA Network, which will be the show’s last. The announcement comes ahead of the premiere of the back half of Season 8, which debuts tonight. The final season of “Suits” will consist of 10 episodes. The series, which hails from creator Aaron Korsh, has aired on the cable network since 2011. “‘Suits’ has played an instrumental role in our network’s DNA for nearly a decade,” said Chris McCumber, president, USA Network and SYFY. “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.” The series currently stars Gabriel Macht, Rick Hoffman, Sarah Rafferty, Wendell Pierce, Amanda Schull, and Katherine Heigl. Past stars include Patrick J. Adams, Gina Torres, and Meghan Markle. Torres is also set to star in a spinoff centered on her character, Jessica Pearson, as she makes the move to Chicago. It was announced last week the spinoff would be titled “Pearson.” The back half of Season 8 will pick up with Louis as the new managing partner of Zane Specter Litt. In a last-ditch effort to unify the team, both Samantha and Alex got their names on the wall and these six episodes will explore their new dynamic, the power shift between Louis, Harvey and Robert, and Katrina’s promotion to senior partner – plus, Donna’s role at the firm and her new love interest. Korsh created the series and serves as executive producer. Doug Liman, David Bartis and Gene Klein of Hypnotic serve as executive producers along with Genevieve Sparling, Ethan Drogin and Christopher Misiano. Universal Cable Productions is the studio. USA most recently ordered the drama series “Treadstone,” which is set in the Jason Bourne universe. The network’s current lineup consists of shows like “The Purge,” “Queen of the South,” and “Mr. Robot,” which will end after its upcoming fourth season. Read a statement from Korsh on the series below. “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”