NBC’s latest “Law & Order” spinoff will not air this season as originally planned, the network said Monday.
Ordered to series last fall, “Law & Order: Hate Crimes” was slated to be introduced later in this season of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” but it’s said the show won’t be ready in time and will instead be pushed. However, the series from co-creators Dick Wolf and former “SVU” showrunner Warren Leight remains in active development with a 13-episode order for next season.
The seventh series in the “Law & Order” franchise, “Hate Crimes” is set to focus on New York’s real-life Hate Crimes Task Force, the second oldest bias-based task force in the U.S.
Per NBC’s original announcement, the unit, which pledges to uphold a zero-tolerance policy against discrimination of any kind, works under the NYPD’s Special Victims Unit and often borrows SVU’s detectives to assist in their investigations, suggesting a close connection between the two shows.
Despite the delay for “Hate Crimes,” Dick Wolf fans will still be introduced to at least one new spinoff of a Wolf Entertainment procedural this season.
Later this season, CBS will debut a backdoor pilot for a spinoff of Wolf’s “FBI,” centered on the agents assigned to tracking down the criminals on the agency’s Most Wanted list. Led by Julian McMahon and “Law & Order” alum Alana de la Garza, “FBI Most Wanted” is scheduled to air in the latter part of “FBI’s” freshman run this spring.