Law & Order: For the Defense canceled before it even premieres

Here is something that you don’t see every day — a broadcast show getting both a series order and a spot on the fall schedule, only to be canceled before it ever sees the light of day.

With that in mind, this is where we come today with the news of Law & Order: For the Defense. According to a new report coming in courtesy of Deadline, NBC has opted to not move forward with the spin-off from Carol Mendelsohn and Dick Wolf. This show was a part of a Thursday lineup that included both Law & Order: SVU and Organized Crime, with the idea here being that they could establish a universe similar to One Chicago on Wednesday nights.

While For the Defense made it to the casting phase of pre-production, clearly there was something behind the scenes that was not quite working with the spin-off. Was its developed in some way rushed? We do wonder that given that its announcement earlier this year came almost out of nowhere. Law & Order in general has had a number of spin-offs that either failed to see the light of day or were canceled earlier on. Law & Order: Hate Crimes is another one that was conceptualized for a while, and Law & Order: Trial by Jury and Law & Order: Los Angeles both ended after a very short period of time on the air.

The aforementioned report does note that there are plans for another spin-off in this world to be developed, though it remains to be seen precisely what that would look like.

In the place of For the Defense on the NBC schedule, you are going to have a chance to see The Blacklist season 9.

What do you think about Law & Order: For the Defense ending before it even started?

Be sure to share right no in the attached comments! Once you do that, remember to stick around for some other news.

This article was written by Jess Carter.

Photo: NBC