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Law and Order in doubt

Law and Order's bid to reach a history-making 21st season now appears to be in jeopardy.

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The status of long-running legal drama Law and Order is unclear today following a report that NBC has backed out of a commitment to continue the series.

The network had previously announced the show would proceed to a history-making 21st season with 16 episodes, and syndicated with cable network TNT.

But Hollywood journos Nikki Finke and Nellie Andreeva report that producer Dick Wolf is now accusing the network of going back on that arrangement, with dissent over deal concessions.

There are some suggestions NBC’s previous announcement was just to give the show 21 seasons. Ratings for the drama  last season were disappointing.

Sources tell Deadline Hollywood, “And, for whatever reason, NBC was unwilling to engage in a serious way with TNT. They didn’t do it. At the last minute, they said, ‘We’ll pick the show up and this is how we’re going to do it’. Which was ludicrous.”

According to the Hollywood Reporter NBC sources said talks are ongoing.

Law and Order currently ties with Gunsmoke as America’s longest running drama series. One more -as it had in place with NBC- would have given it the record.

Wolf reportedly now wants to try to make a deal to take the series to TNT, which picked up Southland after it, too, was cancelled by NBC.

Source: Deadline Hollywood, Hollywood Reporter

13 Responses

  2. It has been Officially Cancelled.

    You have to wonder about NBC sometimes, Law And Order got bounced around the schedule with the Jay Leno in Prime-time Experiment (read debacle), under performs and gets cancelled, ah well will be interesting to see what happens with Law And Order LA (wonder if any Cast Members will move Jobs now).

  3. SVU should get the axe long before the mothership.

    To me the original has had a new lease of life since Jack became boss and got his own problem child.

  4. @Alex, NBC owns USA (as well as several other cable channels), so the show’s ability to move is a bit hampered. TNT/Time Warner isn’t as flash with the cash now as when it won the right to air the Law & Order repeats. If there’s any saviour in the mix, I reckon it’s Uncle Rupert (Fox/FX) or CBS, if only just to beat the peacock and allow the show to break the record.

  5. The original show’s US ratings have been fairly poor, plus there’s going to be a
    L&O Los Angeles show, that’d be cheaper to make than the New York city one.

  7. I’m surprised that L&O don’t have some sort of a contract with the USA Network, stating that as long as the spin-off (Criminal Intent) is on their network, they are obliged to pick up the original series. I heard that when Buffy changed networks from The WB to UPN, Whedon’s contract stated that if Angel was cancelled while Buffy was still on, UPN would have to pick up Angel. Of course, Buffy had finished the year before Angel was cancelled so the deal never came into play. But I would’ve thought that this kind of deal would happen in a lot of cases like these.

  8. Law & Order has remained *the* ‘police and lawyer’ drama for me since I can remember, and continues to be a drawcard for me after all these years…. It remains fresh with the semi-regular turnover of lead cops and DA’s (I’m especially enjoying Billy Chenowith at present!).

    If NBC don’t renew it then someone else would, and should. It excels in its simplicity – nothing fancy, just coops chasing bad guys, and lawyers trying to persecute – brilliant.

  9. I suspect it will still get made, though if it isn’t with NBC, NBC are gonna regret that decision. Given that they’ve tossed Criminal Intent to the US Network (where it’s ratings quadrupled), and look like they might toss L&O Prime, Wolf ain’t gonna be interested in renewing SVU with them after the contracts are up.

    Some other network will benefit from this, which serves NBC right.

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