Law And Order: Organized Crime Season 5 Finally Has A Premiere Date, But I'm Even More Excited About A Different Detail

Nearly a year has passed since Law & Order: Organized Crime was renewed with a move to Peacock rather than returning to join Law & Order: SVU on NBC Thursday nights, and there's finally a date for when the wait for Season 5 will be over. Fans with a Peacock subscription can expect to see Stabler and Co. back in action on April 17 in the 2025 TV schedule. While that's exciting news that actually confirms something I've been crossing my fingers for, the detail about the length of the ten episodes has me even more excited.

But first things first! The premiere date of April 17 grants my wish that new episodes of Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 5 will release on Thursdays starting before the finales of the other two Law & Order shows. While the SVU spinoff still won't be paired with Mariska Hargitay's series, releasing episodes on the same day can keep the novelty of the Law & Order Thursdays of the previous few years before Found landed the 10 p.m. ET time slot.

If there are any crossovers, then they can even be watched on the same day. This seemed like a pretty reasonable hope to hold out for when it came to Season 5, so I'm definitely celebrating the semi-return to Law & Order Thursdays.

What I'm particularly excited about is something that hadn't even occurred to me to hope for. The move to Peacock seemed to mean that some swearing beyond what's allowed on NBC could be included, and perhaps more violence than we got during OC's time on network TV. Based on Peacock's new details about Season 5, there's a bigger change on the way: the ten episodes are listed as running for 60 minutes each.

Now, that's not to say that every episode will run for a full hour or even go much longer than the usual 42 minutes of a Law & Order episode. But that potential for an hour of Organized Crime action per week is exciting to consider as the days count down until the premiere. Peacock is also releasing the first two episodes on premiere day, so that's a double dose of Stabler, Bell, Jet, Reyes, and the rest starting on April 17. Check out the teaser below:

And there are more pieces of good news from Peacock's recent announcement about the show. Not only are Christopher Meloni, Danielle Moné Truitt, Ainsley Seiger, and Rick Gonzalez back as the main crew of the task force, but Tate Ellington will be back as Vargas as well. Plus, Dean Norris isn't the only member of the extended Stabler family who will be back after his promotion to series regular status. The lovely Ellen Burstyn will be back as Bernie Stabler, as will Nicky Torchia as Eli.

I'm still curious about what we'll see of Michael Trotter as Joey Jr., though, after how Season 5 ended and that intense scene between Joe and Bernie. Details about the plot of the new season are still pretty scarce, but Season 5 will address the dangers of cross-border smuggling as well as high-tech domestic terrorism. Plus, just to raise the personal stakes for Stabler, a crime family will want payback for what he did in Rome. With his worlds colliding yet again, Christopher Meloni's longtime character has to risk everything.

Sign me right up! It remains to be seen if Organized Crime will be wrapping all of these stories into a single arc to run for ten episodes, or if we'll get smaller mini arcs throughout. Whatever happens, we have an end date for hiatus: April 17 on Peacock. For now, you can always revisit the first four seasons on the streamer, and – if you're like me – keep tuning in to NBC on Thursdays to see if Law & Order and/or SVU mention the OC team at all.