Law & Order: Organized Crime

Law & Order: Organized Crime is an American crime drama television series that premiered on April 1, 2021, on NBC. The seventh series in the Law & Order franchise and a spin-off of Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the series stars Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler, reprising his role from SVU. The show features a "single-arc" storyline that takes multiple episodes to resolve.
The first season premiered on April 1, 2021, and was renewed for a second season comprising 24 episodes but only 22 episodes were produced. The second season premiered on September 23, 2021, and the series was renewed in May 2022 for a third season, which premiered on September 22, 2022. In April 2023, the series was renewed for a fourth season, which premiered on January 18, 2024. On April 25, 2024, it was announced that the series was renewed for a fifth season and would move to Peacock, will premiere on April 17, 2025, with the first episode airing on NBC.
The series centers on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit character Elliot Stabler, a veteran Detective who returns to the NYPD in New York following his wife's murder. Stabler joins the Organized Crime Task Force, led by Sergeant Ayanna Bell.
In March 2020, NBC had given a 13-episode order to a new crime drama starring Meloni as his character from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Elliot Stabler. Dick Wolf, Arthur W. Forney, and Peter Jankowski, serve as the executive producers, with Matt Olmstead being looked at as showrunner and writer. The series came following Wolf's five-year deal with Universal Television, which will serve as the series' production company along with Wolf Entertainment.
The series was originally planned to be set up in the twenty-first season finale of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, with Stabler's wife and son returning. The episode would also have revealed the whereabouts of the Stabler family following Meloni's departure as the character in season twelve. When asked whether or not the storyline would instead happen in the twenty-second season premiere, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit showrunner Warren Leight said that "it's pretty clear that Elliot will be in the SVU season opener". Craig Gore was set to be a writer for the series, but was fired by Wolf on June 2, 2020, for controversial Facebook posts about looters and the curfew put in place in Los Angeles due to protests about the murder of George Floyd. Gore had listed himself as co-executive producer on the series on his Facebook profile, but Meloni announced Olmstead would be the showrunner for the series, not Gore. The same day, the series title was revealed to be Law & Order: Organized Crime. The first teaser for the series was released during the 30 Rock: A One-Time Special on July 17. In July, Meloni stated he had not yet seen a script, and the writers were still working on the story. By October, Olmstead had stepped down as showrunner, and he was later replaced by Ilene Chaiken in December.
In February 2022, Chaiken was replaced as showrunner by Barry O'Brien. In May 2021, NBC renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on September 23, 2021. In May 2022, NBC renewed the series for a third season, which premiered on September 22, 2022. Bryan Goluboff was appointed showrunner for the third season, but left after three months, and was replaced by Sean Jablonski, who then also left due to "creative differences", and David Graziano took over for the final episodes of the third season. In April 2023, NBC renewed the series for a fourth season that premiered on January 18, 2024, with John Shiban as showrunner. Shiban departed during production of the fifth season in fall 2024, marking the sixth change in showrunners over the show's five seasons.
During the production of the series, in July 2020, Meloni announced Mariska Hargitay would make a guest appearance as her character from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Olivia Benson. On January 27, 2021, Dylan McDermott had been cast in the series, with Tamara Taylor, Danielle Moné Truitt, Ainsley Seiger, Jaylin Fletcher, Charlotte Sullivan, Nick Creegan, and Ben Chase joining the following month. At the end of March, it was reported that Nicky Torchia, Michael Rivera, and Ibrahim Renno would appear in recurring roles. In March, it was revealed that some of the actors who played members of the Stabler family as far back as 1999, in episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, would appear in the new series, including Allison Siko as daughter Kathleen and Jeffrey Scaperrotta as son Dickie, while Isabel Gillies appeared as soon to be murdered wife Kathy in the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode that sees the Stablers return to New York, setting the scene for the new series. In August, Ron Cephas Jones, Vinnie Jones, Lolita Davidovich, Mykelti Williamson, Guillermo Díaz and Dash Mihok joined the cast in recurring roles for the second season. In early 2022, Jennifer Beals and Denis Leary joined the cast in recurring roles. In July 2022, Rick Gonzalez and Brent Antonello joined the cast for the third season. In August 2022, Camilla Belle and Gus Halper joined the cast for the third season.
Like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the series is filmed on location in New York. Production was set to begin on the series in August 2020, but was announced in September that the series was the only one produced by Wolf Entertainment to not be given a start date for production. The series later began production on January 27, 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Meloni and Hargitay sharing pictures on set. In the following months, the production on the series had been halted twice due to two positive COVID-19 tests; despite the halt, it was announced the series would still premiere on the same date.
On July 19, 2022, Johnny Pizarro, a crew member working on the show, was fatally shot while filming was underway for the third season.
Filming on the fifth season, set to air on Peacock, began in August 2024.
On June 16, 2020, it was announced the series would air on Thursdays on NBC at 10 p.m. Eastern Time, the former timeslot of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, with the latter moving up an hour to 9 p.m. The series was the only new series on NBC's fall lineup at the moment for the 2020–21 television season. In August 2020, the series was pushed back to 2021 and on February 4, 2021, it was announced the series would premiere on April 1, 2021, as part of a two-hour crossover with Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The first season consists of eight episodes.
The series is available on the streaming service, Peacock, with episodes being released on the service a week after they air on NBC for the service's free tier, and the next day for the paid tier.
In Canada, Organized Crime airs on Citytv in simulcast with NBC, unlike past American-set Law & Order series which have all aired on CTV. Because of commitments to other Thursday night programming like Grey's Anatomy, CTV aired the direct lead-in episode of SVU out of simulcast in the 10:00 p.m. ET/PT timeslot, airing directly against the premiere of its spin-off on Citytv. In Australia, Organized Crime airs on the Nine Network on Monday night timeslot starting April 12, 2021.
The first two seasons have been released on DVD for Region 4, with all yet to be released for Region 1.