The Law & Order: SVU season 20 renewal watch starts now!

Given that it was a relatively quiet night in ratings Wednesday with very few swings, we want to focus in here on something specific: The Law & Order: SVU season 20 renewal watch. This is something we’ll be doing periodically at CarterMatt in the months to come as we can see whether or not one of our favorite crime shows manages to tie the original Law & Order — or even surpass it when it comes to seasons.

SVU is an institution. It tells stories like no other, and continues to feature great performances week after week after week. Mariska Harigtay should be both an Emmy and Golden Globe candidate for what she’s done so far into season 19, and we don’t see any signs at all of the series slowing down.

Let’s now stop in for a moment and explain why we think the SVU season 20 renewal is coming, and it of course starts with the ratings. Last night’s new episode drew a 1.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic, equaling the ratings of the past two weeks before that. Here’s what is all the more outstanding with the show right now: The consistency that it is showing now year-to-year. Right now SVU season 19 is down only 6% in the demo and less than 2% in total viewers from the season 18 average. When you look across the board at most network TV shows you’re seeing drops of at least 10% in both measures, if not more than that. This is a show retaining almost all of its audience and thanks to that, it currently stands as NBC’s #1 show on Wednesday night.

Want to know something even more impressive? At the moment SVU is #2 overall in terms of NBC’s scripted shows in the demo behind only This Is Us. Its 1.3 season average right now in the demo is better than The Brave, Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, The Blacklist, or Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders. It’s a show doing this without an enormous lead-in, or without any sort of special promotion that is head and shoulders beyond what you’re seeing anywhere else. It’s so hard in 2017 to convince viewers to watch anything live, but SVU fans clearly don’t need any convincing. It remains appointment television and has a strong social following.

Ultimately, we don’t think we have to do a whole lot more to state the case that an SVU season 20 renewal should happen — the proof is in the numbers. We’ll see if they hold up the rest of the season, but we feel pretty confident they will given the loyalty SVU viewers have to the end product.

Do you think that an Law & Order: SVU season 20 renewal should be coming up soon?

Be sure to share in the comments below!

(Photo: NBC.)