EXCLUSIVE: It came too close to the wire for comfort, but Law & Order will live on, finalizing a Season 26 renewal for 2026-27, Deadline has learned. An official pickup is expected as soon as tomorrow, Friday, three days before NBC is slated to unveil its fall lineup to advertisers Monday at its upfront presentation.
Season 26 will not been designated as final, sources said. It is unclear what cuts the show may be undergoing, I hear details are still being worked out. Budget trims have become customary for long-running broadcast series with big-name casts, including the Dick Wolf dramas on NBC.
The mothership Law & Order has an all-star cast but has kept its size relatively small, with five series regulars this season, Tony Goldwyn, Hugh Dancy, Maura Tierney, Reid Scott and Odelya Halevi.
After scoring a renewal alongside spinoff Law & Order: SVU last year, the mothership series unexpectedly found itself on the bubble this season.
That was somewhat surprising became the revival seemed to have hit its stride creatively, especially in its current season, after a somewhat bumpy reentry following a 12-year break. Still, performance-wise, Law & Order lags behind One Chicago and SVU, though its linear viewership is on par with the latter.
With a strong crop of five drama pilots, NBC decided to keep its options open by keeping Law & Order on the bubble alongside sophomores Brilliant Minds and The Hunting Party.
Law & Order was always believed to have the best renewal chances among the three. (Brilliant Minds already has been canceled. The Hunting Party has been kept in contention in part of the halo effect its Netflix run has had on its streaming viewership on Peacock.)
Additionally, it is hard to imagine NBC canceling an iconic series like Law & Order twice with no advance notice or a proper sendoff following the shock May 2010 axing.
Law & Order is executive produced by Wolf, Rick Eid, Pamela Wechsler, Alex Hall and Peter Jankowski. It is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Wolf Entertainment.
