Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
American police procedural crime drama television series (1999 – present) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (often shortened to Law & Order: SVU or SVU) is an American police procedural crime drama television series created by Dick Wolf for NBC. The first spin-off of Law & Order, it stars Mariska Hargitay as Detective (ultimately promoted to Captain) Olivia Benson, now the commanding officer of the Special Victims Unit after originally having been Stabler's partner in a fictionalized version of the New York City Police Department, and Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler (until Meloni left the series in 2011 after 12 seasons).[1][2] Law & Order: Special Victims Unit follows the detectives of the Special Victims Unit as they investigate and prosecute sexually-based crimes. Some of the episodes are loosely based on real crimes that have received media attention.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | |
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Also known as |
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Genre | |
Created by | Dick Wolf |
Starring | |
Narrated by | Steven Zirnkilton |
Theme music composer | Mike Post |
Opening theme | "Theme of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" |
Composer | Mike Post |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 25 |
No. of episodes | 550 |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 40–44 minutes |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | NBC |
Release | September 20, 1999 (1999-09-20) – present (present) |
Related | |
Law & Order franchise |
The series, produced by Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, premiered on September 20, 1999. After the premiere of its 21st season in September 2019, the series became the longest-running primetime live-action series on American television.[3] Since the end of the original run of the main Law & Order series in 2010, SVU has been the only live-action primetime series that debuted in the 1990s that has remained in continuous production.[lower-alpha 1] The 23rd season premiered on September 23, 2021,[4] during which the show aired its milestone 500th episode.[5][6] As of May 9, 2024, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has aired 550 original episodes, well surpassing the episode count of the original Law & Order series. In terms of all-time episode count for a primetime scripted series, SVU now ranks fourth behind The Simpsons (with 762 episodes), Gunsmoke (with 635 episodes), and Lassie (with 591 episodes).[6] The 25th season premiered on January 18, 2024,[7][8] and on March 21, 2024, NBC announced that it renewed the series for its 26th season.[9]
The series has received 108 award nominations, winning 33 awards. Hargitay was the first regular cast member on any Law & Order series to win an Emmy Award when she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2006.