The days are still counting down until Law & Order: SVU finally crosses over with another Dick Wolf show, but there's some other big news before the next episode in the 2025 TV schedule. Former producer Michele Fazekas has been appointed as the first-ever female showrunner of SVU. I'm already excited to see what she brings to Season 27 after learning that she wrote one of the most memorable episodes that touched on Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler's (Christopher Meloni) complicated relationship.
Michele Fazekas As New Showrunner
While SVU technically hasn't been renewed for Season 27 just yet at the time of writing, Deadline reports that Gen V showrunner and former SVU producer Michele Fazekas is taking the helm of the longest-running drama of the nine current Dick Wolf TV shows. Current showrunner David Graziano will finish out Season 26, with Fazekas taking on the job for the 2025-2026 TV season. At this point, it's a pretty safe bet that SVU will be back for Season 27.
And this is a history-making move, as SVU has had many showrunners over its quarter century on the air, but all were men prior to the latest news. Considering that Mariska Hargitay has been starring for all 26 seasons and most of the 550+ episodes have centered on women as victims of – to quote the opening narration – "sexually-based offenses" that are "considered especially heinous," I've been all for more women on board the show.
SVU was even short on female characters for a time, after Kelli Giddish left as Amanda Rollins and Molly Burnett was written out as Muncy. Season 25 addressed that issue to a certain extent with the addition of Curry, but on the whole, I'm hyped that Michele Fazekas is on board to make history as the first woman to helm the show.
None of this is to say that much is guaranteed to noticeably change under Michele Fazekas as showrunner, but I'm even more optimistic after I checked out her list of credits and discovered that in addition to her work as a producer on SVU between Seasons 4-7, she also penned 25 episodes, one of which was Season 7's "Fault" and can be found streaming with a Peacock subscription and a Hulu subscription now.
"Fault" Is An Iconic Episode For Olivia Benson And Elliot Stabler
If you're a longtime fan of Law & Order: SVU, a longtime devotee of Benson and Stabler's relationship, and/or got hooked on the show via cable TV marathons, you likely remember "Fault" as one of the game-changing episodes of the Christopher Meloni era. And that's not just because future Longmire actor Lou Diamond Philips went all-out in his portrayal of murderer/rapist/kidnapper Victor Paul Gitano!
Season 7 was a complicated time for Benson and Stabler's relationship, and "Fault" first saw Stabler prioritize checking on his partner when she had her throat instead of rescuing a young boy. The boy was murdered because the NYPD couldn't get to him in time, which of course weighed heavily on the detective.
Later in the episode, which Michele Fazekas co-wrote with Tara Butters, the partners were at a standoff with Gitano holding Stabler at gunpoint, a little girl's life in jeopardy, and Benson with her weapon drawn and a decision to make. A sniper ultimately took the shot and spared her having to make a choice, but she later admitted to Stabler that she wouldn't have risked his life by taking the shot.
The duo put their personal relationship above their work, making "Fault" a messy but memorable episode. Benson also ultimately decided to request a new partner after Stabler made an admission of his own. That obviously didn't stick in the long run, but it complicated the end of Season 7 for the detectives, which set up some drama in Season 8.
And if that's not enough to sell you on the fact that "Fault" was a standout episode of the SVU era before Christopher Meloni left, just know that I rattled off that plot description from memory! (Yes, I'm one of the fans who originally got hooked via cable TV marathons that frequently rerun this ep.) As somebody who watches a lot of procedurals but also loves character development, I'm 100% on board for more.
A lot has admittedly changed since Michele Fazekas co-wrote the episode in 2006, but seeing how she could combine heavy character moments with classic Special Victims cases back then makes me optimistic that she could do it again in the future, even though most of the SVU series regulars have changed since Season 7.
For now, though, there are still plenty of episodes of Law & Order: SVU Season 26 to look forward to, including that crossover with Law & Order that airs the same night as Law & Order: Organized Crime's long-awaited fifth season premiere. While Christopher Meloni's post-SVU series in the franchise will release most episodes exclusively on Peacock, the Season 5 premiere will also air on NBC in its former time slot. Keep tuning to NBC on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET if you want to see the latest of Olivia Benson in Season 26.
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