NBC’s Law & Order: SVU is keeping its record streak going. The venerable crime drama starring Mariska Hargitay, the longest-running primetime drama on broadcast, will be back next fall for its 28th season.
This is not a fresh renewal for SVU. While NBC last May announced the series’ pickup for the 2025-26 season, SVU had received a two-season renewal, the second year of which had not been made public. Michele Fazekas, who joined last season as SVU‘s first female showrunner, is expected to continue in the role.
Defying gravity — and age — Law & Order: SVU is having its best season on Peacock, +27% vs. last season, which had set the previous high water mark for the show’s performance on the platform where it is a Top 10 mainstay and ranks as NBC’s most watched next-day series.
Law & Order: SVU, from Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, also is NBC’s #1 drama among adults 18-49 demo in multi-platform viewing. And, 27 seasons in, it has been able to maintain a budget in the mid-tier $5M-$6M range that keeps the show sustainable.
There is no word yet on NBC’s other long-running series in the Law & Order franchise. I hear the mothership, currently in its 25th season, will be evaluated alongside the network’s other bubble drama series, The Hunting Party and Brilliant Minds, against NBC’s five drama pilots, with final decisions possibly going down to the wire in early May. NBC is slated to present its 2026-27 schedule on May 11.
Maybe because the crop of drama pilots have been getting solid early buzz, led by The Rockford Files reboot starring David Boreanaz, NBC left Law & Order on the bubble after renewing the three Chicago series.
After going through major cast changes in the first couple of seasons after its 2022 launch, the Law & Order revival seems to have hit its stride creatively, especially in its current season, which has been well received. Performance-wise the mothership still lags behind One Chicago and SVU though its linear viewership is on par with SVU.
There is also the spectre of NBC’s unceremonious cancellation of Law & Order after 20 seasons that also came down to the wire in May 2010. It damaged Wolf’s decades-long relationship with the network.
The relationship has since been repaired but the network would likely look to avoid a repeat, ending the iconic show abruptly a second time without at least a limited-run final season send-off.
Law & Order is believed to have stronger chances of renewal than the other two dramas on the bubble. The Hunting Party got a shot in the arm when its first season made waves in its debut on Netflix in February. There hasn’t been a noticeable halo effect on the show on NBC but it remains a decent performer on Peacock.
Medical drama Brilliant Minds and freshman single-camera comedy Stumble remain heavily on the bubble with long odds for renewal. The latter, an internal darling, is facing a hot single-camera comedy pilot in Dan Goor/Luke Del Tredici’s PI half-hour starring Jake Johnson, as well as new midseason comedy series that is in a similar mocumentary style as Stumble, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins.
While Reggie Dinkins has not been a breakout hit either, midseason entries typically get more leeway with a shot at a second season. The series also has a football theme, with NFL a major presence on NBC, and it comes from one of NBCUniversal’s top comedy writer-producers, Tina Fey.
NBC doesn’t have room to expand its scripted slate as its Sunday night is ruled by sports for the entire season and it’s Tuesday night is taken over by NBA basketball for most of it.
