Could ‘Law & Order: SVU’ make it too 500 episodes?
Tonight, “Law & Order: SVU” is celebrating what is a really tremendous achievement in 400 episodes. There’s only a tiny number of scripted drama series to make it this far, and when you’re thinking about crime / legal series in particular, the original “Law & Order” is only of the only ones to top this. You have to give credit to creator Dick Wolf, star Mariska Hargitay, and all of the writers and producers over the years who have managed to get the show to this point.
Now, you’re left to wonder precisely what the future cold hold beyond this. The show, formally, has not been renewed just yet for a season 19 — though we consider it a near-certainty. Aside from “Chicago Fire” and “This Is Us,” “SVU” remains one of NBC’s top-rated scripted shows, it is a warrior in syndication, and it can still generate huge ratings bumps on any given moment. For example, we do think that they’d get a nice bump if NBC ever decided to schedule the controversial “Unstoppable” episode, one featuring a politician who bears resemblance to Donald Trump.
So with a season 19 renewal, you have to think that a season 20 is also pretty likely. This would get the show the same number of seasons as the original series, and from there, we do believe it all comes down to everyone on the show as to whether or not they want to do more. There are a few select shows on TV that always seem to get strong-enough ratings to survive. This show is one, and “Grey’s Anatomy” is another. They’ll most-likely end when many of the cast members decide to close up shop.
Let’s say, for example, that there are 23 episodes this season. This would bring the episode total to 412. If there are 23 episodes for the next four seasons, that would mean in season 22 the show would get a chance to crack the 500 threshold. Is that an ambitious goal? Sure, but we can certainly see it happening given that you have a cast and crew involved here who view the subject matter as bigger and more important than the show. There’s a passion to keep shining a light on problems in the real world, and trying to make the world a better, more-informed place … even if the stories being told here are fiction.
Do you think that “SVU” is going to make it to 500 episodes?
(Photo: NBC.)