With Law And Order: Organized Crime Missing NBC’s Fall TV Season, Here’s How SVU And Law And Order Did Without Christopher Meloni’s Show

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As a seasoned TV enthusiast with over three decades of watching and analyzing ratings under my belt, I must say that the recent changes to NBC’s Thursday night lineup have left me both intrigued and somewhat saddened. Having grown up with Christopher Meloni’s Elliot Stabler gracing our screens on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, it’s bittersweet to see him return for a new chapter in Law & Order: Organized Crime while the original spinoff moves exclusively to streaming.

The numbers don’t lie, and it’s clear that both SVU and Law & Order remain strong contenders in the broadcast TV landscape, even without the three-hour block they once enjoyed on Thursday nights. While I can’t help but wonder how a crossover between SVU and Organized Crime might have affected ratings, I understand the strategic decisions made by NBC to maximize their content across multiple platforms.

One thing’s for certain: I’ll be keeping a close eye on those ratings in the new year, eagerly awaiting the return of Law & Order: Organized Crime and the ongoing adventures of SVU and Law & Order. And who knows, maybe one day we’ll see Stabler and Benson sharing the screen once more.

In the meantime, I’ll be revisiting old episodes on Peacock, reminiscing about those thrilling Thursday nights and eagerly anticipating what the future holds for these iconic series. As a die-hard fan, I can’t help but joke that I might need to invest in a bigger TV and more snacks to get through it all!

For several seasons, NBC aired a series of Law & Order episodes on Thursdays, but starting the 2024-2025 TV season, that’s no longer the case. However, Christopher Meloni will reprise his role as Elliot Stabler for Season 5 of Law & Order: Organized Crime. As for the spinoff of Law & Order: SVU, viewers with a Peacock subscription can stream its episodes at some point in the 2025 TV schedule. In the meantime, Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s Found series is taking over Thursday night, making it interesting to monitor the ratings for NBC’s remaining two Law & Order shows and see how they fare without Stabler at 10 p.m. ET during the fall season.

Based on TVLine’s ratings and viewership data, NBC’s section of Dick Wolf’s television empire remains the top choice among the network’s scripted series. Specifically, SVU is ranked fourth, following the three shows of One Chicago, with an average weekly viewership of 5.6 million and a rating of 0.65 in the 18-49 age group. Law & Order falls slightly behind in TVLine’s rankings, placing seventh with an average audience of 4.83 million and a rating of 0.45.

Due to the fact that “Organized Crime” hasn’t resumed after its NBC finale during the spring, we don’t have current statistics for it yet. Unlike network television ratings, streaming figures aren’t calculated in the same manner. The numbers for the other two shows suggest that while “SVU” remains the second-highest rated drama on broadcast TV, it has seen a decrease of 18% in viewership compared to Season 25. As far as “Law & Order” is concerned, its audience for Season 24 has dropped by 26% compared to the spring season.

Could it be that NBC’s decision to stop airing three-hour blocks of Law & Order on Thursdays has led to a decrease in viewership for both Law & Order and SVU? Not necessarily, as there are multiple factors at play. It’s worth noting that even shows like Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D., which are currently NBC’s top and third most-watched fall series respectively, have experienced a drop in audience numbers from the 2023-2024 season to the ongoing 2024-2025 season.

It’s plausible to assume that ratings would have spiked during that particular week if a crossover between SVU and OC, featuring the reunion of Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni, had been broadcast on prime time television, as many fans eagerly anticipate. However, it’s impossible to predict with absolute certainty how things might have turned out if Organized Crime had aired on primetime instead of being exclusive to Peacock in 2025.

Essentially, the show known as “Found,” which took over OC’s Thursday slot, has seen a 13% decrease in viewership, averaging around 3.9 million viewers from its previous Tuesday night run. Moreover, it’s dropped more than 20% compared to the audience numbers that OC used to garner. Interestingly, it appears that Found may be struggling even more as a replacement for Organized Crime than either SVU or Law & Order are in their respective slots.

Regardless, I find the numbers intriguing, and I’ll certainly monitor them as we move into the new year, provided that Season 5 of Law & Order: Organized Crime indeed airs before the conclusion of Season 26 of SVU and Season 24 of L&O. For now, you can rewatch past episodes of all three series on Peacock, with their NBC premieres set for Thursday, January 16 in their customary time slots.

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2025-01-01 02:08