Why Law & Order: SVU season 20 move may make sense

We’ve had a few days now to digest the news that Law & Order: SVU season 20 is moving to Thursdays at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, and even with that in mind, it is still rather easy to have some divided opinions over it.

If there is one word to describe it, we would probably say that it is this: Unneeded. We’re talking about one of the most dominant shows on TV and one that was maintaining a steady audience at its old timeslot Wednesday nights at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. It was doing that without much in the way of a lead-in, and also against some pretty hefty competition.

So why make this move with all of this in mind? The more we think about it, the more we foresee this as NBC trying to make a move for the sake of themselves rather than anything that they are trying to do SVU. We know that there is this perception out there that this move could kill the show, but in our mind, that really is not even a remote possibility. SVU fans are some of the most loyal out there so we have little reason to doubt that they will be there to check out the show on Thursdays. Maybe there will be tiny drops in the numbers, but that is probably just due to the smaller total number of viewers available later in the night.

The real reason for this shift, at least in our mind, seems to be this: NBC seeing a moment for them to completely take over a timeslot. While Chicago Fire fared okay in this timeslot Thursday nights at 10:00 p.m., SVU has a chance to perform even better. Meanwhile, the network may see some vulnerabilities in this timeslot with How to Get Away with Murder slipping and with SWAT season 2 an unknown.

It all really boils down to this in our mind: If SVU controls this timeslot for the upcoming season, we do foresee it sticking around for a rather long time — provided, of course, that the people involved want to keep making it.

Do you think that SVU season 20 is going to be okay in its new timeslot? Be sure to share right now in the comments!

(Photo: NBC.)