Law & Order: Organized Crime, starring Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler, is set to premiere its fifth season on Peacock with a double-episode launch on April 17. New episodes will then stream weekly on Thursdays.
Here’s the Lowdown: The show is moving to Peacock after four seasons on NBC. This 10-episode season sees Detective Stabler (Meloni) battling cross-border smuggling, high-tech domestic terrorism, and a vengeful crime family. Stabler, who now leads Sergeant Ayanna Bell’s (Danielle Moné Truitt) Organized Crime Control Bureau also counts Bobby Reyes (Rick Gonzalez) and Jet Slootmaekers (Ainsley Seiger) among his team. His brother Randall (Dean Norris) is there to help keep the Stabler family, including mother Bernie (Ellen Burstyn) safe.
What This Means Now: Fans of the Law & Order franchise will need a Peacock subscription to watch the new season. The move to streaming might allow for more creative freedom.
The Bigger Picture: This shift to Peacock reflects the changing landscape of television, with streaming services becoming increasingly important for major network shows. The established Law & Order brand, created by Dick Wolf, Ilene Chaiken, and Matt Olmstead, is clearly valuable enough to be a significant draw for Peacock’s subscriber base.
