Every ‘Law & Order’ Show, Ranked

Stephanie March brought SVU’s ADA Alexandra Cabot out of Witness Protection for what Wolf called a “charactercedural” that focused more on the personal lives of Cabot (now the Homicide Bureau chief) and the batch of hungry young ADAs she oversaw. Think Grey’s Anatomy in a Law & Order uniform. The 13-episode ratings disaster that ran from March to May of 2006 also featured Anson Mount (Star Trek: Discovery) as Cabot’s deputy Jim Steele, 24’s Eric Balfour as bed-hopping ADA Brian Peluso and Mare of Easttown’s Julianne Nicholson as ADA Christina Finn.

NBC got into the true-crime anthology biz in 2017 with Law & Order True Crime: The Menéndez Murders, an eight-episode retelling of the mid-’90s trials of Lyle and Erik Menéndez, the California brothers convicted of murdering their parents. Then it, too, was killed. Edie Falco starred—and scored an Emmy nod—as high-power attorney Leslie Abramson. Anthony Edwards, Harry Hamlin and Julianne Nicholson costarred.

This one-season 2005–06 extension wrongly assumed viewers were interested in the drama of jury selection, deliberations and witness interviews. Bebe Neuwirth led the team as the rules-driven Homicide Bureau chief in the Manhattan DA’s office, with Blue Bloods alum Amy Carlson as her combative deputy. Fringe’s Kirk Acevedo also starred. Fred Thompson appeared here and on the mothership as DA Arthur Branch, while other franchise characters crossed over, including L&O’s Ed Green and Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston, with Neuwirth, Carlson and Thompson), and SVU’s Benson and Stabler.

This 2010–11 entry transferred the franchise’s fondness for ripping from the headlines to California via the LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division, which investigated crimes inspired by so-L.A. cases like the Bling Ring’s celebrity thefts. Detectives included Corey Stoll and Skeet Ulrich, with Alfred Molina and Terrence Howard as prosecutors. A midseason overhaul saw Molina returning to his old detective job and Alana de la Garza join as ADA Connie Rubirosa, but it didn’t save the show.

Christopher Meloni’s Det. Elliot Stabler came out of a 10-year retirement in 2021 to join the NYPD’s Organized Crime Task Force following the mob-related murder of his wife. This iteration features extended story arcs as Stabler and his partner Sgt. Ayanna Bell (Danielle Moné Truitt), along with Ainsley Seiger as Det. Jet Slootmaekers, target various Mafia and underworld operations. SVU’s Mariska Hargitay occasionally visits.

This 2009–14 take adapted scripts from the U.S. show to reflect Britain’s legal system. It retained the iconic cha-chung sound, but the DAs in England are referred to as crown prosecutors. Harriet Walter was senior investigator Natalie Chandler for six seasons; Bradley Walsh (above, with Walter) played Det. Sgt. Ronnie Brooks for its entire run, and Battlestar Galactica alum Jamie Bamber was his ill-fated junior partner Matt Devlin for the first five seasons.

Vincent D’Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe teamed up as quirky psychology-trained Det. Robert Goren and his partner, Det. Alexandra Eames, for the 10-season run of spinoff No. 2, which hit the streets in 2001. The chemistry they developed over the years was apparent. “It bleeds through [onscreen],” D’Onofrio once said. The series centered on the NYPD’s Major Case Squad detectives as they investigated high-profile cases within the worlds of politics, finance and the arts, and the show stood out by focusing on the criminal’s motives and giving more backstory on the victims before their demise. Jeff Goldblum starred for two seasons as Det. Zack Nichols.

The mothership ran for 20 seasons before NBC asked for its badge and gun in 2010. A dozen years later, it was revived to great success with long-running fave Sam Waterston as DA Jack McCoy, joined by costars Hugh Dancy, Camryn Manheim and Jeffrey Donovan, who has been replaced by Reid Scott. The February 22, 2024, episode, “Last Dance,” was Waterston’s last, with McCoy tendering his resignation and teeing up a new DA played by Scandal’s Tony Goldwyn. As McCoy said, “It’s been a hell of a ride.”

Almost a decade after the mothership launched, its first spinoff hit the airwaves with the ominous opening declaration that “in the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous.” Thankfully, there’s an elite squad of detective who investigate these “vicious felonies,” built around the pairing of Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler. Mariska Hargitay has been on the beat since Day one, while Meloni left after Season 12 (before returning to launch his spinoff). The late Richard Belzer brought his Det. John Munch over from the canceled Homicide: Life on the Streets as a regular for the first 15 seasons (then recurred until his death in 2023). Ice-T joined in Season 2 as Munch’s partner, Det. Odafin “Finn” Tutuola, who later partnered with Kelli Giddish’s Det. Amanda Rollins until her exit in Season 22.