Issues behind the scenes continue to plague Law & Order: Organized Crime. While the series is moving on following its move to streaming from broadcast television, another creative shakeup is happening with the show.
Per Deadline, it’s been revealed that series showrunner John Shiban is departing Law & Order: Organized Crime. This will mark yet another showrunner to leave the series over the past four years of the show’s production. Production was reportedly paused on Season 5 when Shiban exited the production earlier this month, though the news hadn’t been made public up to this point.
Filming has now resumed with original showrunner Matt Olmstead coming back on board as an executive producer. A new showrunner has not been named and it’s not clear if Olmstead will stay on board in that capacity, as he continues to serve as showrunner and EP on FBI: International. However, Olmstead will be helping with the remaining scripts for Season 5. Production is said to be about halfway through the new season with most of the episode scripts already written.
Law & Order: Organized Crime Can’t Keep Its Showrunners
Originally, Olmstead was brought on board as the very first showrunner for Law & Order: Organized Crime. He ultimately stepped down before the first season had started production. As the series moved on, a rotation of showrunners saw stints served by Ilene Chaiken, Barry O’Brien, and Sean Jablonski. Shiban’s run began after he came on board following the end of the Hollywood strikes of 2023, and served as showrunner for the entirety of Season 4.
Season 4 served as the last season of the series to be aired on NBC. When the spinoff was renewed, it was announced that Season 5 would be given a streaming release on Peacock. This is better than the alternative, as there were rumors that the show might end up getting canceled outright.
Law & Order: Organized Crime is the seventh Law & Order franchise. It spawned from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which originally featured Christopher Meloni as one of the lead stars. Meloni returns as Elliot Stabler for the series with the character now serving as a part of the NYPD’s Organized Crime Task Force following the murder of his wife. The show also stars Danielle Mone Truitt, Ainsley Seiger, Rick Gonzalez, and Dean Norris. There have also been crossover appearances by Law & Order and SVU stars.
The fifth season of Law & Order: Organized Crime is in development but doesn’t yet have a premiere date set at Peacock. Season 4 debuted in January of this year and wrapped up in May, as it featured an episode count of 13, down from the 22-episode totals held by the two prior seasons.
