The 2024 TV schedule is still about two months away from bringing NBC’s biggest shows back to primetime, but premiere season feels imminent as the network covers the 2024 Olympics in Paris. A promo for this fall’s Law & Order Thursdays has already been airing during the commercial breaks, featuring footage from last spring. However, it feels incomplete without Law & Order: Organized Crime’s Christopher Meloni, usually a staple alongside the casts of Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU.
The promo, airing throughout NBC’s primetime Olympic coverage, highlights themes of teamwork, justice, and helping victims, with clips solely from Law & Order and SVU. This is a stark change from last season when all three shows were included. Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 hasn’t been canceled but has been cut from the network’s lineup, moving exclusively to Peacock Premium, making its absence in the promo noticeable.
Law & Order: Organized Crime wasn’t renewed with the other two shows back in March. Months of fan campaigns and speculation followed before confirming its return for Season 5 as a streaming original on Peacock. The release date for its first streaming episode remains unknown, adding to the oddity of the situation. Meanwhile, Christopher Meloni has been seen with Snoop Dogg in Paris for the Olympics instead of filming in NYC.
Organized Crime debuted via an SVU backdoor pilot in 2021, creating a Law & Order primetime block with SVU. The original L&O series revived its first season in 2022. While the shows managed a mega crossover in fall 2022, the most recent season saw limited crossovers between OC and SVU, save for a few voice cameos from Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni.
Hargitay mentioned earlier this year that she planned a crossover between SVU and OC, reassuring fans that Benson and Stabler will reunite despite SVU staying on NBC and OC moving to Peacock. Organized Crime’s serialized nature makes it a good fit for streaming, potentially allowing it to explore darker themes than network TV permits. The first four seasons are already available on the streamer.
As for NBC’s Law & Order Thursdays, Law & Order returns at 8 p.m. ET and SVU at 9 p.m. ET on October 3. Season 2 of Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s Found will take over the 10 p.m. ET slot previously held by Organized Crime.
