Law & Order: Organized Crime is FINALLY renewed for a fifth season - but the ... trends now
Law & Order: Organized Crime fans can breathe a sigh of relief after the series was renewed for a fifth season.
Sources said the show is finalizing a deal for an upcoming season featuring 10 episodes, which is significantly fewer than previous seasons, according to Deadline.
Last month, it was reported that the series' renewal wasn't certain due to its relatively low ratings and multiple changes in showrunners.
Organized Crime's shorter 10-episode season will also be getting a new home.
Instead of airing on NBC like other Law & Order shows, Organized Crime will find a new home on the network's streaming service Peacock.
Law & Order: Organized Crime fans can breathe a sigh of relief after the series was renewed for a fifth season, sources told Deadline on Thursday
The show will stream there exclusively, and fans will also be able to find episodes next-day episodes of other Wolf Entertainment shows, including the flagship Law & Order and SVU, as well as Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med.
Those shows are among the most popular on the steamer, according to Deadline, so it may be a logical fit to draw viewers' attention to Organized Crime.
While season one of the show featured only eight episodes, its second and third seasons featured a standard network-sized order of 22 episodes each.
However, amid anemic ratings the fourth season was downgraded to just 13 episodes, and the streaming-only fifth season will cut that down further to 10 episodes.
Although fans have delighted at getting a chance to see detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) return to the fold and team up with his former partner Olivia Benson (SVU's Mariska Hargitay) via crossover episodes, Meloni isn't able to play up his charm with longtime friend Hargitay for the majority of Organized Crime episodes.
Instead, the show features a notably darker tone, and he plays an even more obsessive version of the character than he debuted on SVU.
Organized Crime is also a structural departure, as it follows a serialized story instead of being a case-of-the-week show like most other Law & Order entries, which may turn off some viewers who prefer not to commit as much attention to the show and instead wish to simply tune in whenever they please.
Although moving to a new network is a rarity for Law & Order shows, it's not the first time this has happened, as Law & Order: Criminal Intent previously aired its final four seasons on the USA Network after airing
