Christopher Meloni’s New Role Better Not Mean Organized Crime Is Ending!

Law & Order: Organized Crime star Christopher Meloni will star in Dan Fogelman’s upcoming Hulu drama.

I’m thrilled for him. Meloni is a great actor, and I’ve admired Fogelman since he produced This Is Us, so this will be a strong vehicle for both of them.

Still, Peacock has been silent about whether it will renew Law & Order: Organized Crime. Understandably, this new announcement has me worried.

Meloni’s New Role Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Organized Crime Is Done

Meloni has worked in more than one series at a time before. During Law & Order: SVU Season 1, he was also starring in HBO’s Oz.

Plus, Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 only had 10 episodes and didn’t premiere until April.

If the newest season isn’t scheduled until almost a year from now, there’s no reason for Meloni to sit around waiting for work to begin. There’s no reason he would want to.

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Of course, I also thought Blue Bloods would be saved since millions of people were begging CBS to do so — so I could be way off-base here.

But so far, there’s no reason to panic. Peacock hasn’t made a decision. However, that doesn’t mean Meloni has heard cancellation news that hasn’t been shared yet.

Law & Order: Organized Crime Didn’t Move to Peacock Because of Poor Ratings

That’s a myth that has been circulating since the move, but there’s little basis in reality.

Peacock isn’t a last-ditch depository for shows that would otherwise be canceled. Otherwise, Found and The Irrational would be there instead of being canceled for no damn reason.

Instead, NBC has been experimenting with transitioning scripted programming to Peacock for several years. Days of Our Lives wasn’t transferred there because it was about to be canceled. Now it’s often the streamer’s top-rated show.

In Organized Crime’s case, the network ran the numbers and realized that if 80% of viewers were watching on Peacock, it didn’t make good business sense to keep the show on broadcast.

Of course, the ratings could have declined because of people who decided to boycott last season in protest against NBC. Others could’ve bowed out simply because they didn’t like it (there was some weird stuff going on this season!)

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Still, if the show had high ratings on Peacock before the switch, it likely had high ratings after, which is a point in favor of renewal.

I have no idea why Peacock hasn’t renewed yet, but I also don’t know their schedule. 

It wouldn’t have made sense to renew Organized Crime during NBC’s upfronts because the new season had barely begun airing. However, now that it’s been over for a month, hopefully, they’ll make a decision soon.

It Would Be a Shame If Peacock Didn’t Renew the Series

Look, the fifth season wasn’t as good as it could have been, and I’m still angry that Bell was missing for a third of the season.

That makes Season 6 even more important. It’s the only chance Law & Order: Organized Crime has to redeem itself.

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We need a season that uses Bell and Reyes to their full capacity, restores the procedural to an ensemble series, and takes full advantage of the looser content restrictions on streaming.

I absolutely hate that we have to play this waiting game every year. Organized Crime has always been a show that belonged on either cable or streaming, and it needs to act like it.

It needs a chance to be written the way it’s supposed to be, rather than being forced into the usual formula for the franchise, which just doesn’t work for this particular show.

What do you think, Law & Order: Organized Crime Fanatics?

Conversations keep this site going. Jump into the comments with your thoughts and share this article with friends who might want to join in too.

All five seasons of Law & Order: Organized Crime are currently available to stream on Peacock.

Watch Law & Order: Organized Crime Online

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