‘Law & Order: Organized Crime’ Canceled After 5 Seasons

EXCLUSIVE: Law & Order: Organized Crime, starring Christopher Meloni, won’t be returning for a sixth season on Peacock — or NBC.

The decision doesn’t come as a huge surprise; the Law & Order spinoff’s most recent fifth season launched on Peacock exactly a year ago. It subsequently got a second-window run on NBC, the series’ home for its first four seasons, last fall.

Still, as Deadline reported in February, while dormant, Organized Crime was not completely dead and there had been a soft outreach for a new showrunner. I hear that never materialized and, with NBC bullish on its five drama pilots that have started to come in, Organized Crime‘s fate has been sealed.

Meloni has another series; he is the lead of Dan Fogelman’s upcoming NFL drama for Hulu The Land.

Organized Crime, from Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, follows Law & Order: SVU‘s Elliot Stabler (Meloni) in his return to the NYPD to work on the Organized Crime Task Force.

The series had been an outlier from the start, a departure from the Dick Wolf close-ended procedural brand with more serialized storytelling. Possibly as a result, the series performed below the five other Wolf dramas (One Chicago, Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order) in linear ratings during its tenure on NBC, leading to its move to Peacock after Season 4.

It’s hard to turn on a switch and reinvent a series that had aired on broadcast for four seasons as a streaming show overnight, and Organized Crime struggled with its dual broadcast-streaming identity in its fifth season.

As Deadline reported in July, while serialized, Season 5 came in less dark and edgy as anticipated, making it suitable for a 10 PM airing on broadcast. That led to NBC’s decision to put the show back in the Law & Order Thursday lineup last fall where it delivered respectable linear viewership.

There was another likely factor in Peacock’s cancellation decision on Organized Crime which had done OK on the platform. The series has had a hard time keeping a creative team in place with five showrunners in as many seasons. A new season would’ve come with a sixth showrunner.

In addition to Meloni, Organized Crime‘s Season 5 cast also included Danielle Moné Truitt, Ainsley Seiger, Rick Gonzalez and Dean Norris. Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, produced in association with Wolf Entertainment.