Good news! ITV has announced that they have ordered 13 more episodes of Law & Order UK, Here’s the press release from ITV:
ITV has commissioned Kudos Film and Television to produce another 13 episodes of its successful drama Law & Order: UK. Law & Order: UK is based on Dick Wolf's groundbreaking US format which remains the most successful brand on primetime U.S. television. Commissioned for the UK by Peter Fincham, ITV's Director of Television, Channels and Online and Laura Mackie, ITV's Director of Drama, the third series of Law & Order: UK launched last month with more than 5 million viewers and with series four to air in the new year the drama has established itself as one of ITV's most popular.
The critically acclaimed cast, including Bradley Walsh, Jamie Bamber, Harriet Walter and Freema Agyeman are joined each week by a host of guest stars. Series three attracted a fantastic line up including Rupert Graves, Deborah Findlay, Kevin Doyle, Rocky Marshall, Patrick Malahide, Ruth Gemmell, Matthew Marsh, Celyn Jones, Wunmi Mosaku, and Robbie Gee. Stars including Juliet Stevenson, Tobias Menzies and Nicola Walker will join the cast for series four.
Law & Order: UK is continuing to deliver audiences with its top flight acting and 'ripped from the headlines' storylines that captivate and entertain. With the commissioning of 13 new episodes we are proving ITV's commitment to a series which has the potential to run and run much like its US counterpart." Dick Wolf, creator and executive producer of Law & Order, says: "I am absolutely thrilled that ITV has ordered another year of Law & Order: UK. Stephen Garrett and the entire Kudos team have done a fabulous job of creative stewardship." - Laura Mackie (Director of Drama, ITV)
The new series will also be co-produced by Kudos Films and Television, Wolf Films and NBC Universal. The executive producers are Jane Featherstone (Spooks, Ashes to Ashes), Andrew Woodhead (The Fixer, Spooks) and Stephen Garrett (Burn Up) for Kudos and Dick Wolf, creator and executive producer of Law & Order for Wolf Films. The producer will be Richard Stokes who also produced series one to four of Law & Order: UK. Emilia di Girolamo is co-producer and lead writer and other members of the writing team include Debbie O'Malley, Nick Hicks-Beach, Roy Williams and Richard Stokes.
The brainchild of creator Dick Wolf, Law & Order remains the longest running crime series in the history of U.S. television although earlier this year closed its New York casebook after 20 seasons. However successful spin-offs including the new Law & Order: LA, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent mean Law & Order is still one of television entertainment's most pre-eminent brands. Law & Order: UK is currently being shown on BBC America in the US to hugely positive critical response.
Laura Mackie (Director of Drama, ITV) says:" Law & Order: UK is continuing to deliver audiences with its top flight acting and 'ripped from the headlines' storylines that captivate and entertain. With the commissioning of 13 new episodes we are proving ITV's commitment to a series which has the potential to run and run much like its US counterpart."
Dick Wolf, creator and executive producer of Law & Order, says: "I am absolutely thrilled that ITV has ordered another year of Law & Order: UK. Stephen Garrett and the entire Kudos team have done a fabulous job of creative stewardship."
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7 comments:
This is fantastic news! My husband and I are truly enjoying this incarnation of the franchise. I caught up with the LOLA's I had on tivo and watched them back to back. Gotta say that I'm not liking this one. Too, bad I like Molina so much but he and Howard have none of the passion or charisma that we saw on the mothership. It's off my season pass for tivo.
MissKittyFantastico
While I'm not the most ardent of fans, I'm glad to hear it's going from strength to strength.
It just shows you its not about audience then, because the ratings have never been so consistently low.Only "Luther" did as badly in ratings.
Its about money. Its a double whammy because they can then sell the same shows back to America from where they copied it in the first place.Also because NBC Universal is in a bid with ITV and ITV runs the shows in UK.
Given this, I dont think it matters aboout ratings so long as there is money to be made....so LOLA will be fine...the license to show it has already been given foir Universal in the UK so its in for a few seasons at least.
UK is already showing The Event,whatever its reception in America.
I'm happy to see this - and clearly ITV don't think the ratings are that bad or they'd hardly be ploughing more money into it.
It's about the ratings too. If a show isn't pulling its weight in its timeslot, it will get axed. It happened with two of Wolf's failed spinoffs, Conviction and Trial By Jury which failed to compte with Numb3rs. Even distrbuting shows overseas doesn't guarantee that a show will stay on air.
The UK version is a filler.No show at 9pm primetime slot is seen as a success unless its pulling 5.2million at least.
BBC realised that with Luther. They only ordered two more episodes to complete it, instead of a second full season. Its lowest rating was 2.9million. Law and Order UK lowest was 3.1million. Luther had a worst erosion level but Law and Orders highest rating was only 4.9million.
Maybe there is an agreement for original episodes to be written instead of rewrites...and maybe there is a cast change. Something has to happen there.
ITV is a commercial network -- they care about ratings only because ratings usually equals money; if they've got another profitable source of income from a series, they'd still make it even if no one watched it.
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