Why Was Law & Order: Organized Crime Canceled After Season 5?

Image via Peacock

Christopher Meloni’s return as Elliot Stabler is cut short after NBC announces the cancellation of Law & Order: Organized Crime. The show ran for five seasons, becoming one of the rare short-lived shows among the Dick Wolf productions. The latest season of the show had moved to NBC’s streaming service Peacock.

As per Deadline, the show was looking out for a new showrunner before the cancellation was announced. Meloni was hopeful about a new season as he had earlier stated in an Instagram video, “Here’s to a Season 6. Hope it happens.” After the cancellation announcement, Meloni took to Instagram to thank his fans. He shared:

Earlier, the fifth season finale ended with a major tragedy for the Stabler family. His brother, Joe Jr., was murdered by crime boss Julian Emery. In the episode, Stabler was able to arrest Emery, and Joe Jr.’s final act before his death helped put him away in prison. Stabler also faced another tragedy when he appeared on the Season 27 premiere of Law & Order: SVU. He and Olivia Benson were met with the tragic news of the passing of their old unit captain, Donald Cragen.

The primary reason for NBC to not moving forward with the new season is the fading viewership of the show. However, it might not be the only reason. Here’s a breakdown of all the potential reasons why NBC cancelled Organized Crime.

Law & Order: Organized Crime Faded in Viewership Over Time

Law & Order: Organized Crime kicked off its premier episode with 7.86 million viewers (via Showbuzz Daily). However, its last episode on NBC, which was a rerun after its Peacock debut, had only 2.21 million viewers, as per reports. The last episode of Season 4, which was the final episode to debut on NBC, had 2.9 million viewers.

If we are looking at a season-by-season breakdown, the average viewers and the rating in the key demographic saw a steady decline. Here’s a breakdown of the average viewers and the rating in the key demographic (18-49) for Seasons 1-4, as per TV Series Finale:

According to the TV ratings guide, the show’s final season averaged 0.17 in the key demographic. It was a low number compared to the other shows on the Thursday slot. Here’s the viewership detail of the final season when it was aired on NBC (via TV Ratings Guide).

While the storylines only got more engaging with each passing season, there were other factors that contributed to the decline. The behind-the-scenes issue with the leadership and writing was a major headache for NBC. At times, the network was not sure what to do with the show, often resulting in long periods of development limbo in between seasons.

The Frequent Leadership Change Proved to be a Headache

Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler in a still from Law & Order: Organized Crime | Credits: NBC/Peacock

When Christopher Meloni came back as Elliot Stabler for a new Law & Order spinoff, the makers went for a shift in the usual format of the Dick Wolf shows. Instead of the episodic format, the show had a more serialized approach. With a strong cast and a set of recognizable names like Dylan McDermott, Rick Gonzalez, Dean Norris, and Ellen Burstyn in the rotating cast, the show could’ve gone places.

However, a leadership crisis hit the show even before it began. Craig Gore, one of the original writers of the show, was fired before the show began development. A potential candidate for the showrunner, Gore was kicked off the show after his inflammatory comments on Facebook during the George Floyd protests (via Variety).

Matt Olmstead was later announced as the showrunner, but he stepped down as the writer-showrunner in October 2020. The L Word creator Ilene Chaiken later joined as the showrunner/executive producer of the show. However, Chaiken lasted only a single season, as she left midway through the production of the second season. Barry O’Brien, a co-executive producer on the show, took on the interim showrunner duty.

The third season burned through three showrunners. Bryan Goluboff left after three months of production, while Sean Jablonski left midway through Season 3. David Graziano took over the showrunner duties for the final episodes of the season. John Shiban was the showrunner of the fourth season, but he too left the show during the production of the fifth season.

While no new showrunner was officially named for the rest of the season, Olmstead, who returned as an executive producer, helped with the remaining episodes. Reports earlier suggested that NBC were looking out for new showrunners to take over the show’s sixth season. However, it appears that the history of the show either made it difficult or made NBC give up on the show altogether.

Organized Crime‘s Move from NBC to Peacock and Back to NBC

Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay in Law & Order crossover between Organized Crime & SVU | Credits: NBC

Law & Order: Organized Crime wasn’t the worst performer in terms of viewership on NBC. But with the high costs and low returns compared to its sister shows, NBC was desperate for some results from the show. In an attempt to resolve the fading viewership, the network decided to move the fifth season of the show to its streaming service, Peacock.

It appeared to be a sound decision on paper, since Dick Wolf’s Law & Order and One Chicago shows were some of the most viewed shows on the platform. Also, the previous episodes of the show performed well on Peacock during its next-day runs.

The official explanation of the move was that the show could now explore some really dark subject matter without the restriction of network television (via Deadline). However, the Peacock version didn’t turn out to be as dark of a story as promised. Even NBC had to admit to this when they decided to bring back Season 5 for reruns on its fall schedule.

Many believed that the return to NBC was the network’s last resort to see if the viewership had improved. Unfortunately, NBC didn’t even commit to this rerun fully, when they skipped over episodes 7 & 8. This move was probably made so that Organized Crime could air its finale rerun on the same day as that of Law & Order: SVU.

What do you think of the cancellation of the show? Do you think the show deserved more airtime? Let us know in the comments below!

All episodes of Law & Order: Organized Crime are now available for streaming on Peacock.