Put this in the category of “I’ll believe it when I see it”, but Business Week is reporting that Law & Order will be renewed for a 21st season. Angela Bromstad, president of prime-time entertainment, gave Business Week the information in a December 21 interview. This would make Law & Order the longest running TV drama in history, beating the record set by “Gunsmoke.” It’s important to note that “The Simpsons” had already been renewed through season 22, so Law & Order will just have to keep going to beat that record.
It’s a long way off until the fall season, and with sale of NBCU to Comcast, anything can happen between now and season 21 for Law & Order. So while I am thrilled to hear this news, I also hope that when it gets close to NBC actually firming up the fall 2010 line up, that Law & Order is still on it! (Let’s face it - Law & Order is one of the best shows that NBC has right now, and they would be crazy to drop it next season.)
You can read the full Business Week article on the state of NBC at this link.
Check out my blog home page for the latest Law & Order information, on All Things Law And Order, here.
Also, see my companion Law & Order site,These Are Their Stories.
I hope that the NBCU sale to Comcast (which is claiming this is a merger, not an acquisition BTW) will result in the original L&O being available by streaming video and/or ON DEMAND like the other shows in the franchise.
ReplyDeleteI hope this is true too. I really do think the show has found the best cast it's had in ages.
ReplyDeleteI hope this is true too. I really do think the show has found the best cast it's had in ages.
ReplyDeleteI'll believe it when I see it, for LOCI fans NBCU has been much of a let-down lately.
ReplyDeleteThe NBC person never said the SAME CAST would return, so after what NBCU did to Criminal Intent, I would be prepared that they would cut someone like Sam Waterston or some of the other actors. I wouldn't put it past them. I also will not believe this until they actually come out with the fall schedule. NBC cannot be trusted!
ReplyDeleteI can see NBC changing the cast to save some money. I don't trust them either.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine that even this NBC person can commit to a show returning right now. Until NBC makes an official press release and I see that the cast is returning unchanged, I won't accept this information that was given in an interview. Sorry, but NBC did a number on Criminal Intent and I would not put it past them to chew up L&O too.
ReplyDeleteThey screwed up LOCI and SVU is on the verge (writing style wise) and now L&O... I hope it is renewed for 21 seasons!
ReplyDeleteI just wonder if NBC is screwing with L&O fans like CI fans are... 2 weeks ago a rumor about Melinda McGraw was joining the cast of LOCI was leaked out and now, it's all a myth.
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ReplyDeleteI would not be surprised if they change some of the cast. Just because NBC likes to screw with the fans like they did with LOCI. I hope it gets renewed with the same cast, and they'd better not get rid of Sam Waterston. I would never forgive them if they did that.
ReplyDeleteI don't really understand why everyone's connecting what USA did to CI with what NBC might do to the Mothership. It's different people making these respective decisions. Sure, USA and NBC exists under the same corporate umbrella, but they basically operate independently of each other. Blaming NBC for what USA did to CI is like blaming the Sony film studio for a piece of lousy Sony electronics.
ReplyDeleteThat said, it's possible that there'll be a cast change or two. I say that not because NBC is a bunch of evil mustache-twirling villains who obviously want to kill the show (after all, why else would they keep it on the air for 20 years), but because there is almost always cast changes on this show. The show has never gone over two seasons without any cast turnover. At the end of this season, they'll have had the same cast for two seasons. I hope they all stick around, but history does not support such an outcome.
By the way, the headline is a bit misleading. Nothing has been renewed. Granted, the NBC Presiding of Primetime Programming publicly expressing her intent to renew is a great vote of confidence, but nothing has been signed by anybody. What this statement basically amounts to is "We are satisfied with its current ratings performance," which is good to know, but if the ratings somehow collapse in the second half, these statements are in no way binding. Hell, she could also be fired prior to May, but that seems unlikely. A better headline would be "NBC plans to renew L&O."
The only reason fans of LOCI are mad is because NBC/USA Network decided Jeff Goldblum would be best to take over LOCI and they fired Kathryn Erbe, Eric Bogosian, and Vincent D'Onofrio 'left'
ReplyDelete(Vincent D'Onofrio has previously stated 'he would stay on LOCI as long as Dick Wolf would have him') VDO was fired too.
And the same exact thing could happen to the mothership, we don't need a MAJOR cast change. IDK if Sisto or Anderson & Roache and de la Garza are leaving after this season but if Merkerson and Waterston are about to leave they need to 'ease' them out... not make a snap decision to cut them out of the program like LOCI did with their cast... when a WHOLE cast leaves abruptly like that... it's about the $$$$$$$$$$! (But that's USA Network's business)
In other words Law & Order... you can expect a casting change.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent... should not have fired a whole cast on the spot. (Goldblum, Burrows, and Mastrantonio should have been... the new arivals than the ones who were there from the jump.)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit... Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay are leaving after 2011 no ifs, ands, or buts. SVU fans are gonna blow NBC up worse than LOCI fans did USA!
http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/2455720/ (SVU poll online, plz post AllThings)
Andrew, yhe headline reports exactly what Angela Bromstad from NBC said - they are bringing it back for another year, which to me means that it has been renewed. ATLAO reported that she will believes it when she sees it, which says that even she is skeptical of what Ms. Bromstead had said. But it's not fair to pick on ATLAO's headline when it's Bromstead who said they will be bringing it back for another year. My guess is that Bromstead may be in big trouble for that comment that she made, seeing that all the other news sources picked up on it too in the same way - especially when I also think that NBC will do the same thing as USA and take a hatchet to the cast. Just wait till they make a cast change here - fans could get ticked off quick, seeing that they really like what the current cast has been doing so far.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Andrew, but I must correct you on that one. NBCU *owns* USA. TPTB of NBCU are ultimately in charge, no matter what. What was done to LOCI came straight down the line from NBCU execs and the USA execs concurred.
ReplyDeleteNBCU stinks on ice and they are not to be trusted! They don't care about what the fans want. Make no mistake.
The Law & Order franchise revolves around NBC & NBCU... other words USA is owned by NBC thus NBC OWNS the whole shindig.
ReplyDeleteWho gets hired & fired on all 3 shows. The cast, producers, writers, showrunners, etc. That's why the franchise's writing style changes so often new writers.
Showrunning wise - Like episodes from season 9-14 have been the best of L&O. But like seasons 17+ the episodes are 'ripped from headlines' in general and all 'political'.
Or SVU the first 8 to 9 seasons of SVU were kick ass and now SVU is turning lax.
Or CI seasons 1-7, best episodes of the series and season 8 the ratings cooled due to the new writers and producers.
I think the franchise needs to do a switheroo, writing wise.
SVU's writers go to CI. CI's writers go to L&O and L&O's writers go to SVU.
Cast wise - Law & Order (1990) has had so many cast changes over the years, you have to count them on your toes too.
SVU/CI/(TBJ) - One solid cast is needed for a least the time Meloni and Haritay have held down SVU. That's why CI is going down and TBJ went down (after Orbach died).
It's really hard to explain but this is the message: NBC & NBCU is all the same, what's said at NBC goes down to NBCU... that's why CIs cast is leaving... they got the boot.
Sorry, Andrew, but I must correct you on that one. NBCU *owns* USA.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea why you thought I wasn't aware of that. I can only assume that you didn't read my post very closely since in it I explicitly acknowledged that NBC & USA exist under the same corporate umbrella.
that's funny, I thought the cast changes were due to producers wanting to keep production cost down. the biggest differences b/t the mother ship, LOCI and SVU is that the latter two are actually very [main] character driven so, while they're procedurals in the strict sense of the term, audiences have become much more focused on those characters' "lives" as much as the story and probably caused a significant increase in salary & power of a few of the actors (namely, VDO, Hargitay & Meloni) often at the expense of other fine characters/actors in the franchise. That doesn't mean that the mother ship won't have casting changes (I have noticed that Linus Roache is used less for interviews and, some times, it looks like his picture seems to be cut out of full cast images on the nbc website). . .
ReplyDeleteRumor has it that Linus Roache wants out anyway after this season.
ReplyDeleteI did read your post. I was reiterating that point to make the point that it wasn't soley USA's decision because USA is owned by NBCU.
ReplyDeleteI've yet to see any newsie item that says that Linus Roache wants out, so that would totally be a rumor. This is the best cast and writing team this show has had in 4-ever. NBC would be terminally brain dead if they were to touch the cast of this show.
ReplyDelete@Brantley - where have you come across this rumor. Roache seems very positive expressing a desire to continue with the show in the interviews I've seen and it certainly gives him the stability and flexibility to focus the rest of his time with Andrew Cohen's group (his wife works on their Connecticut compound).
ReplyDeleteIt's coming back. If they're seriously going to have Law & Order: LA, you know that the mothership is coming back.
ReplyDeleteI've never been one to mind cast changes. Hell, my favorite character of all time is the Arthur Branch character, and I kept watching after he moved on.