Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the first spin-off of Law & Order, is an American police procedural television series that focuses on crimes of sexual nature. While the victim is often murdered, this is not always the case, and victims often play prominent roles in episodes. The series frequently uses stories that are "ripped from the headlines" or based on real crimes. Such episodes take a real crime and fictionalize it by changing the details. The series premiered on NBC on September 20, 1999, and its twenty-seventh season premiered on September 25, 2025. On April 16, 2026, the show was renewed for a twenty-eighth season, which will premiere on October 8 of the same year.
Most episode titles of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit between seasons one and twelve are a single word or initialism. From seasons 13–17 and from seasons 21–23 (except for two episodes from season 23), the pattern changes to one in which episodes have a title with the number of letters matching the season number (in exactly two words, seasons 13–17). From seasons 18–20, the episode titles follow no fixed pattern. From season 24 onwards, most episodes have the title spoken at some point in the episode.
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Series overview
Episodes
Seasons 1–19 (1999–2018)
Season 20 (2018–2019)
Philip Winchester departs the cast in the season finale, "End Game". Michael S. Chernuchin leaves the show as executive producer at the end of the season.
Season 21 (2019–2020)
Warren Leight returns and takes over as executive producer once again. Jamie Gray Hyder joins as a recurring guest for the first seven episodes portraying Officer Katriona "Kat" Tamin. She is promoted to the main cast in the eighth episode. Demore Barnes had a continuous arc as Deputy Chief Christian Garland starting with "Down Low in Hell's Kitchen". Production on the twenty-first season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was halted amid the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, with 20 of 24 planned episodes finished, making the last completed episode an earlier season finale than planned.
Season 22 (2020–2021)
Demore Barnes joins the main cast as Deputy Chief Christian Garland. Filming for the season started on Monday, September 14, 2020. Christopher Meloni (Det. Elliot Stabler) returns as a special guest star in the episode "Return of the Prodigal Son," making this his first appearance on the show after his exit in the season 12 finale ("Smoked").
Season 23 (2021–2022)
This was the last season to feature Jamie Gray Hyder and Demore Barnes as regulars. Octavio Pisano joins the main cast. Christopher Meloni, Danielle Mone Truitt and Ainsley Seiger have overarching appearances in a recurring capacity (Law & Order: Organized Crime crossovers). Warren Leight leaves the show as executive producer at the end of the season for the second time.
Season 24 (2022–2023)
Molly Burnett joins in a recurring capacity in episodes 2–6, portraying Detective Grace Muncy. She is promoted to the main cast in the seventh episode, but departed the show in the season finale, "All Pain Is One Malady". David Graziano joins the crew as showrunner. Kelli Giddish (Det. Amanda Rollins) departed the series in the ninth episode, "And a Trauma in a Pear Tree".
Season 25 (2024)
Kelli Giddish returns to reprise her role as Prof. Amanda Rollins in the season premiere ("Tunnel Blind") and in episode 11 ("Prima Nocta"). Her character was a regular on SVU from seasons 13–24.
Season 26 (2024–2025)
Kevin Kane (Det. Terry Bruno) joins the main cast this season. Juliana Aidén Martinez (Det. Kate Silva) joins the cast, and then she leaves the show in the season finale, "Post-Rage". Kelli Giddish (Sgt. Amanda Rollins) had a continuous recurring arc starting with "Divide and Conquer" through "Shock Collar". David Graziano leaves the show as executive producer at the end of the season.
Season 27 (2025–2026)
Kelli Giddish (Sgt. Amanda Rollins) returns to the main cast this season. Aimé Donna Kelly (Captain Renee Curry) is promoted to series regular. Christopher Meloni (Elliot Stabler), BD Wong (Dr. George Huang), Dean Winters (Brian Cassidy) and Dann Florek (Donald Cragen) guest star during the season. Michele Fazekas assumes the role of showrunner. Octavio Pisano (Det. Joe Velasco) departs the cast after the third episode, "A Vicious Circle". Corey Cott (Det. Jake Griffin) is promoted to series regular starting with the ninth episode "Purity" also known as "Snowflakes (Part 2)".
Season 28
Home video releases Season Episodes DVD release dates Region 1 Discs Region 2 Discs Region 4 Discs 1 22 6 6 6 2 21 3 6 6 3 23 5 6 6 4 25 5 6 6 5 25 4 6 6 6 23 5 6 5 7 22 5 5 5 8 22 5 5 5 9 19 5 5 5 10 22 5 5 5 11 24 5 6 5 12 24 5 6 5 13 23 5 6 6 14 24 5 6 6 15 24 5 6 6 16 23 5 6 6 17 23 5 5 6 18 21 4 4 19 24 4 4 20 24 4 6 21 20 4 5 22 16 4 4 23 22 4 4 24 22 5 6 25 13 3 3 26 22 5 6 27 21 5
References
External links Episodes at the official site of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit The NBC Law & Order SVU Production Blog Episodes at The Futon Critic Episodes on TVGuide.com Law & Order: Special Victims Unit DVD releases at TVShowsOnDVD.com