page_title: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (season 12)
section_title: Cast changes and returning characters
hierarchical_section_title: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (season 12) / Cast changes and returning characters
caption_attribution_description: English: Christopher Meloni near the Civic Center in New York City between takes of Law &amp; Order: Special Victims Unit.
context_page_description: The twelfth season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premiered in the United States on the National Broadcasting Company on September 22, 2010, and concluded on May 18, 2011. This was the first season that the show did not air alongside the original Law & Order. Episodes initially aired on Wednesdays between 9pm/8c and 10pm/9c Eastern except for the season premiere which aired from 9pm/8c to 11pm/10c. After the winter hiatus, SVU returned with another two-hour showing on January 5, 2011, before the broadcast time switched to the 10pm/9c time slot the following week.
  At the end of the season, Neal Baer resigned his position as showrunner. After the season finale, Christopher Meloni, BD Wong, and Tamara Tunie left the principal cast.
context_section_description: Australian newspaper Courier-Mail reported in February 2010 that season twelve would be Christopher Meloni's last, after his comment to the reporter that  "I think 12 years is enough, a good number" was misunderstood. Meloni later clarified that, at the time, he had one year left on his contract and the show had not been picked up. He also said "[i]t wasn't [the reporter's] fault", and that he would continue on the show as long as it is picked up. When asked in an interview if Mariska Hargitay could envision doing the show without him, she said, "Oh man, it breaks my heart to even think about it. I just love that man and I love acting with him, and I think it's our chemistry that makes the show what it is. So I don't even want to think about it".
    
  On April 12, 2010, NBC officially picked up SVU for a twelfth season with Meloni and Hargitay returning as part of the one-year deal they struck with NBC before production began on season 11, which included an option for a second year. The two started shooting new episodes in June and July 2010. Hargitay expressed interest in her character having a baby this season, saying, "A boyfriend! A baby! I don't even have to get married. I just want a baby! Give me a baby!".
  On June 23, 2010, Michael Ausiello reported that Paula Patton was in "advanced talks" to join the show, as a permanent ADA. TV Guide later confirmed that Patton would play Assistant District Attorney Mikka Von in multiple episodes, beginning with the fifth episode. She was set to fill the ADA slot left vacant by both Stephanie March (Alexandra Cabot) and guest star Sharon Stone (Jo Marlowe). Patton appeared in a single episode, but dropped out to film Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.  Her role was replaced by Melissa Sagemiller as ADA Gillian Hardwicke.  Sagemiller and Mariska Hargitay previously worked together on the SVU season one episode "Russian Love Poem", in which Sagemiller played a victim. "There's something in my past, a personal connection that we have, something that she did for me and a family member who she helped out ... She's not aware of it yet [but] it becomes revealed in the next several episodes", Sagemiller said. ADA Hardwicke's background was never revealed. Her personality, Sagemiller says, is front and center. "She's tough ... she has a heart, she just gets what she wants." Sagemiller also added, "She sticks to the letter of the law, sometimes to a fault, but in the end I think she always does the right thing".
  Christine Lahti returned as EADA Sonya Paxton in the ninth episode "Gray". Paxton, previously exposed as an alcoholic in season 11, had apparently conquered her drinking problem. Baer told TVGuide.com, "She has a huge scene where she faces off with Stabler". Her character was later killed in the seventeenth episode.
  Diane Neal returned as ADA Casey Novak for the episode "Reparations". Neal had previously made her last appearance in the ninth-season finale, in which her character was censured for violating due process in a rape case.
caption: This season marked Meloni's last regular appearance on the show.
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