Why Law and Order: Organized Crime won’t return in 2023

NBC has just announced its 2023-24 schedule, which has a big change for Law and Order: Organized Crime. Why is the show going to experience a delay, and when does it arrive? Find out!

Debuting in 2021, the series was a huge deal for bringing back Detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) 12 years after his exit from Law and Order: SVU Following the death of his wife, Stabler now works for the Organized Crime Task Force, tackling various big-time crimes across New York City.

Season 1 had a long-term storyline of Stabler taking on the mobsters responsible for the murder of his wife. Season 2 broke it up into three separate story arcs, each with its own guest stars and plotlines. Season 3 has balanced between multi-episode arcs and stand-alone storylines and is set to conclude with a crossover with Law and Order: SVU. 

However, the new NBC schedule has Law and Order: Organized Crime no longer airing on Thursdays following SVU. Instead, the series will have a 13-episode season 4 in early 2024. Its time slot will be occupied by Found, which was intended to air in February of 2023 but had its whole season delayed and thus is ready to go for the fall.

Why is Law and Order: Organized Crime being delayed?

The announcement that season 4 would only have 13 episodes had been made a few weeks ago. The reason is the show has undergone some major backstage drama with four showrunner changes, each one clearly affecting the series (such as the shift from multi-episode arcs to shorter storylines).

Right now, SVU showrunner David Graziano is a temporary replacement on Law and Order: Organized Crime. NBC is thus waiting to find a more permanent showrunner, and holding the show until midseason gives them more time to settle into the job and make plans for the next season.

Another obvious factor is the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike which has harmed production of shows. If the strike goes into summer, it’s likely the premieres of Law and Order and Law and Order: SVU that are going to be delayed until later in the fall. Having one more show also delayed isn’t good for NBC.

Throw in Meloni’s high contract and the economics of production and Law and Order: Organized Crime is going to wait a bit before it can start cracking any more cases.

The season 3 finale airs Thursday, May 18 at 10/9c on NBC and will stream on Peacock.