Law & Order season 23 premiere date: What lies ahead on NBC
Today, the folks at NBC revealed an official Law & Order season 23 premiere date — so what is it? What can we take away here?
Just as you would imagine, there are a ton of different ideas that we can talk through, but let’s start by just sharing the start date itself. You are going to have a chance to see the mothership show from Dick Wolf on Thursday, January 18 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, and it is going to be followed by its sister series in SVU and then also Organized Crime.
Just from the standpoint of the show itself, we certainly don’t think that Law & Order is going to institute any big changes from what we’ve seen in the past. Why in the world would they? This is a clearly popular format that works rather well. It’s what Wolf has used largely as a basis for just about everything else he’s ever done!
The biggest change we know of right now is one that has been previously announced: The departure of Jeffrey Donovan (Det. Cosgrove) from the drama. We imagine that another lead is going to be added in the reasonably near future, and that the producers are going to follow a similar formula to what they’ve done in the past: Cast someone with a prior TV history to attract more viewers to the program. Whether they try out a few different people before solidifying a name remains to be seen.
What the earlier-than-expected premiere date means is that on paper, NBC is going to try to have a 13-episode season here, though it will be challenging given the compressed schedule following the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. By airing the first episode when they are, there will likely be some hiatuses here and there and the schedule won’t be that different from what you’re used to with this show.
Related – Get a better sense now of Donovan’s exit
What do you most want to see moving into Law & Order season 23 over at NBC?
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