To the surprise of practically no one, NBC has renewed ‘Law & Order‘ for a 25th Season and ‘Law & Order: SVU‘ for a record 27th Season.
Dick Wolf’s ‘Law & Order’ is the second longest-running drama series in the history of television… after SVU… The series premiered in 1990 and ran 20 seasons before returning in 2022. Law & Order’s unique bifurcated format of police procedural and legal drama is known for its ripped-from-the-headlines stories. Set and filmed in New York City, the first half is a murder investigation and apprehension of a suspect by NYPD detectives, while the second half is the prosecution of the defendant by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ IS the longest-running primetime live-action series of all time. This hard-hitting and emotional series from the ‘Law & Order’ brand chronicles the lives of the Special Victims Unit of the New York City Police Department, an elite squad of detectives who investigate crimes of sexual assault, child abuse and domestic violence.
The renewals at NBC were never really in any doubt as the both sit comfortably just behind the “One Chicago” series, also from Dick Wolf, which sit at the top of NBC’s ratings. However, like the Chicagos, the main ‘Law & Order’ could be facing some belt-tightening to cut costs. That may take the form of a slight reduction in episode number, but could also see a few faces vanish from the extensive cast. It seems some of the main cast don’t yet have deals set for the next season, so we’ll have to see how things shake out.
For ‘Law & Order: SVU’, it should be pretty much business as usual. They did trim some costs last year by losing a couple of series regulars, but overall, it’s a lean, mean, procedural drama machine, which goes down really well for NBC on both broadcast and streaming on Peacock.
‘Law & Order: SVU‘ airs on Sky Witness in the UK, whilst ‘Law & Order‘ airs on 5USA. If you want to keep track of this or any other show, you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when it gets a UK premiere date.
