Mariska Hargitay holds her award for outstanding actress in a drama series for ''Law and Order : SVU'' at the 58th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, August 27, 2006. (Photo : Reuters/Mike Blake)
"Law & Order: SVU" showrunner Warren Leight said that the Christopher Meloni, who was with the series for 12 seasons before a sudden exit "began to realize that the fans were owed a little more."
Fans, the cast, and crew of the show celebrated when the long-running procedural was renewed for season 18. However, Leight acknowledged he was at least working for very different results, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Leight said, "We've always been aware that our numbers are lower than they could be if we were on Tuesday at 10 or Wednesday at 10 or Thursday at 10 and that the competition is very tough in that 9 o'clock slot. Sometimes there's been this unspoken fear that we're being asked to build our own coffin."
The showrunner particularly refers to NBC's Chicago trilogy also executive produced by "Law & Order" mastermind Dick Wolf and which has since replaced the 10 o'clock timeslot on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. For years, "SVU" has served as a lead-in for first "Chicago Fire" in the 2012-2013 season and then "Chicago P.D." starting in 2014.
"There was a period where some of us might have felt underappreciated, but I think because of the fans holding onto this show, that period has passed," Leight said adding that this is not a booster rocket that returns to the Earth once the Chicago franchise is released.
However, in case that was not the case, the showrunner admits he and the scriptwriters had started plotting a likely series finale should the seventeenth season have turned out the last, a different report by the same publication noted.
Leight pointed out returning former series regulars such as Amaro (Danny Pino), Munch (Richard Belzer), and Stabler (Christopher Meloni).
The showrunner added, "If we weren't coming back, there were a couple things I was absolutely going to do. We had been talking [about], had this been the last episode, we would have tried him to bring him back."
"Law & Order: SVU" airs Wednesdays on NBC at 9 p.m. watch the video below for further details.
