Law & Order: SVU is as strong as ever in the midst of its 26th season in the 2025 TV schedule. It’s hard to believe that the show premiered back in 1999, but Mariska Hargitay still remembers her audition with Christopher Meloni like it was yesterday. While NBC has yet to renew the procedural for Season 27, it seems only just a matter of time. After Ice-T gave a bullish answer as to how long the show could go on for, though, what could the future hold?
Ice-T has nearly been on SVU since the beginning, having joined as Fin Tutuola in the second season. He is the second longest-running cast member in the entire Law & Order franchise, right behind Hargitay, and doesn’t seem to have any plans to leave any time soon even despite knowing how he'd want Fin to go out. He previously told Us Weekly how long he realistically sees the show going on for:
I don’t see any reason why SVU can’t go 30 [seasons]. I think the show will stay on as long as Mariska [Hargitay] wants to do the show. It’s her show.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that SVU will continue on for that long, but Season 30 is just a few years away. While shows aren’t exactly safe until they are renewed, NBC seems to be wanting to keep the Law & Order franchise going for as long as possible. Not to mention the fact that Hargitay herself doesn’t seem to want to step away from the series in the near future. She’s opened up in the past about starring on a show for a quarter of a century, and she still loves it.
Unfortunately, the time will eventually come where Law & Order: SVU comes to an end. The show aired its 500th episode during Season 23, and since 1,000 episodes is definitely far-fetched, Season 30 could very well be possible. It might even be the perfect number to stop at, not that SVU should end any time soon in my opinion. But the number of seasons SVU has had is quite rare. Might as well stop at a milestone season, if it has to stop!.
It's obvious that the writers still have plenty of stories to tell that are keeping fans on the edge of their seats. At the very least, whenever the show does end, it’s very likely it will be on Mariska Hargitay’s terms. It’s hard to imagine SVU without Hargitay and Olivia Benson, and for now, the story doesn’t seem to be done, at least not yet.
Fans may just want to live in the present because there is still quite a lot to look forward to with Season 26 of Law & Order: SVU. The series just came back from hiatus, and there is no telling what will happen. New episodes air on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, streaming the next day with a Peacock subscription.
