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EXCLUSIVE: USA Network‘s “blue sky” series of the 2000s and early 2010s are having a moment this year between Suits‘ blockbuster run on Netflix, which broke streaming records and led to a potential offshoot series at NBC, and the Monk reunion movie, which premieres today on Peacock and already is getting awards recognition.
Now the brand is making its way back to where it started, on the USA Network. NBCUniversal’s ad-supported cable net is plotting a return to original scripted programming with light, frothy character-based procedurals in the mold of the lineup from the “blue sky”era that included Monk, Burn Notice, Psych, Royal Pains, White Collar and Suits, Deadline has learned.
After the end of the WGA strike, NBCU scripted executives put out feelers about their USA plans and already have identified a handful of ideas they are considering for development but there are no deals yet, sources said. The goal is to roll out the first new series in 2025.
Mindful of the economic realities of basic cable, which has been heavily impacted by cord-cutting and the overall decline in linear viewing, I hear budgets are being capped at $2M-$3M an episode. Like is the case with FX and Freeform scripted fare, which draw the majority of their viewing on Hulu, most of the viewership for the new generation of USA “blue sky” scripted series may come from streaming on sibling Peacock, home of the libraries of the original shows and the Psych and Monk followup movies.
USA Network’s “blue sky” era, engineered by former network topper and current NBCU vice chair Bonnie Hammer, kicked off with the debut of Monk in 2002. It was one of two new scripted series series to premiere on the network that year, alongside The Dead Zone, relaunching the network as a destination for original scripted programming.
For a couple of years, USA stayed in the darker/sci-fi drama arena with shows like The 4400, Touching Evil and the Traffic miniseries until Psych joined the lineup in 2006, fitting in perfectly with Monk.
That ushered in a string of escapist dramas with quirky characters, humor — and literal blue skies as they were shot largely outdoors in beautiful locales — including Burn Notice, In Plain Sight, Royal Pains, White Collar, Covert Affairs, Fairly Legal, Suits, Necessary Roughness and Graceland. Psych is set in Santa Barbara, Monk in San Francisco, Burn Notice in Miami, Royal Pains in the Hamptons during the summer, In Plain Sight in New Mexico, Graceland at a swanky Malibu beach house, and Covert Affairs traveled to several European cities, including Venice.
The formidable roster helped USA dominate, ranking as the #1 cable entertainment network for a record 14 years.
By mid-2010s, USA started a shift toward darker, grittier storytelling in pursuit of younger viewers and stronger awards recognition. The breakout success of the 2015 Mr. Robot solidified the approach and hastened the demise of the “blue sky” programming initiative, already on the decline, with no new series in the genre launched after Suits lasting more than three seasons.
In addition to Mr. Robot, the new programming direction, formalized by the 2016 change of USA’s famous “Characters Welcome” tagline to “We the Bold,” yielded shows like The Sinner, Shooter and the long-running Queen of the South. With original scripted series delivering diminishing returns amid economic headwinds, the network largely pulled away from the arena after the 2020 Season 2 run of Dear John, a Bravo transplant.
The only original scripted series on USA right now is Syfy’s Chucky, which is shared between the two NBCU cable nets, with reality, wrestling and sports programming filling its primetime.
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