Law & Order: SVU may be out of new episodes until the fall, but that doesn’t mean that fans won’t get any intriguing news in the meantime. Shortly after Season 23 finished filming, showrunner Warren Leight announced that he was stepping down from the top job. At the time back in May, SVU had yet to reveal who would fill his shoes for the already-ordered Season 24. Now, David Graziano of Coyote has been confirmed as the new showrunner. So what does that mean for Season 24?
David Graziano As The New SVU Showrunner
Graziano officially landed the job as the showrunner who replaces Warren Leight at Law & Order: SVU, according to Deadline. He has a number of television credits to his name going back to 1999, notably serving as an executive producer on projects like American Gods, What/If, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and Coyote. He also co-created Coyote, and wrote five of the six episodes for the show that starred Michael Chiklis.
What His Arrival Could Mean For Season 24
Although David Graziano is a veteran of crimes dramas with credits on Southland, Lie to Me, and of course Coyote, he doesn’t come to SVU with a background in any of the Law & Order shows. In fact, he hasn’t worked on any of the nine current Wolf Entertainment shows that share the same TV universe. This isn’t quite the norm, as the new showrunner for Law & Order: Organized Crime is Bryan Goluboff, who comes to OC as a former SVU executive producer.
Law & Order showrunner Rick Eid also runs the show on FBI, and previously filled that role on Chicago P.D.. Derek Haas has been the showrunner of Chicago Fire from the very beginning, but expanded his Wolf Entertainment work by also running the show over on FBI: International.
It’s not unprecedented for EPs and showrunners to come on board without prior Wolf Entertainment experience, as proven by Chicago Med bosses Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, so it should be interesting to see if SVU’s direction under Graziano’s guidance is noticeably different from Leight’s.
Organized Crime Also Has A New Showrunner
Law & Order: OC brought in SVU alum Bryan Goluboff as the new showrunner for the upcoming Season 3 without any prior work on the Stabler spinoff, and his SVU background immediately made me wonder if him taking the top OC job will lead to more crossovers between the two shows. David Graziano coming into SVU without any Wolf Entertainment history means that it’s hard to predict how Season 24 will or won't change from Season 23, but it’s possible that crossovers could feel different in the next TV season with two new showrunners.
SVU Is Only Renewed Through Season 24
For the first time in several years, Law & Order: SVU is only guaranteed to keep running through the end of the 2022-2023 TV season. Along with the three shows of One Chicago, SVU received a three-season renewal order back in early 2020, which meant a couple years of fans not needing to worry about the future. Now, it’s probably fair to say that SVU is going to be safe for the foreseeable future with as strong as the nine shows of the Wolf Entertainment universe have been, but will the lack of a renewal for Season 25 make any difference in the feel of Season 24, with the new showrunner?
Only time will tell, and fans have a wait before seeing any new episodes under David Graziano’s guidance. Season 23 featured a lot of changes, with Rollins and Carisi finally pursuing a relationship that only became stronger over the course of the season, even when Rollins was missing from some episodes. Benson is primed to potentially make a big decision after the setup in the finale, and the entire Law & Order block of NBC programming delivered a solid three hours of crime drama action on Thursday nights.
If you want to fill the hiatus with some L&O action, you can find all 23 seasons of SVU streaming with a Hulu subscription, as well as the most recent seasons of Organized Crime and the original Law & Order. For some new viewing options during the wait for the fall TV season, check out our 2022 TV premiere schedule.
