Law & Order: SVU season 24: More on Kelli Giddish’s shocking exit
What in the world happened here? We know that television can be complicated, but that doesn’t make anything about the latest news all the easier. That’s especially the case when we are talking about a beloved performer who was a part of the SVU world for so many years.
Here is what we can go ahead and say right now. According to a new report coming in from Variety, it was 100% not Kelli’s decision to depart the long-running crime procedural, which had been speculated in the hours following the announcement. Meanwhile, it was also not a creative decision from new showrunner David Graziano — judging from what he said after the fact, he was very-much looking forward to writing stories for her. Instead, this was a decision made by the higher-ups; both star / executive producer Mariska Hargitay and at least one other producer pushed to keep Kelli on the show, but the decision was already made.
All of this does feel like a really bad look for the powers-that-be, especially since a key factor here could have been money. There is a real effort these days to cut costs among a lot of linear and digital networks, with that coming as a result of declining viewership across the board. Still, isn’t there a way to do this without 1) losing a beloved performer and 2) alienating your audience? SVU is a performance-based show, and we really think the most important thing should be keeping the quality performers.
We’d love to say that at some point down the line, the powers-that-be will recognize their mistake here and course-correct; however, we also don’t want to give ourselves a false sense of excitement for something that very well may not happen.
Are you still shocked that Kelli Giddish is leaving SVU?
Or, are you more shocked because of the way that it happened? Be sure to share right now in the comments, and come back for other updates. (Photo: NBC.)
This article was written by Jessica BunBun.