Law & Order: SVU is continuing its reign as the longest-running primetime action live-action series in the U.S. with the premiere of Season 28 on the 2026 TV schedule. The drama is coming up on its 600th episode, which is pretty crazy to think about. There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight, and as SVU inches closer to Season 30, I’ve been wondering if the feat will happen. Luckily, someone asked this very question.
Both Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU have been staples on NBC for decades now. While it’s unknown just how much longer the beloved Dick Wolf franchise will last, it only makes sense to at least keep the latter running until it hits Season 30, which is only a couple of years away. SVU has already teased Olivia Benson’s possible retirement, making fans wonder if the end is closer than they think. Showrunner Michele Fazekas told TV Insider that it’s really up to Mariska Hargitay:
I feel like the real answer is as long as Mariska wants to do the show. I know 30 is the number that people throw around because it’s a nice, round number. But no, what I have learned being on the show early, because I was on Seasons 3 through 7, and then coming back, and my initial nervousness about it was like, how do you do this? Hasn’t every story been told? And then when I got into it, it’s like, oh no, that is what’s so great about a show like this is the engine of the show runs forever.
Even though Hargitay has been leading SVU since the very beginning, she doesn’t seem to have any rush to leave the series any time soon. She previously shared that, at least for now, she wants the show to get to Season 30. Hargitay has also been able to do other projects while on SVU, having made her Broadway debut earlier this year, so it’s not like she’s been stuck doing one role for the past 27 years.
That being said, it always seems like the longer a show is on the air, the more writers struggle with coming up with storylines. For SVU’s, plenty of episodes are ripped from the headlines, meaning there is always a new and different case. While it does take some time to really flesh out storylines, sometimes, depending on the nature of it and how it connects to a character or two, the writers don’t seem to have any problems. It’s one of the things that’s so great about SVU, as Fazekas put it:
You will always find cases to do. And then what it’s really about is, how do you put your characters in these cases, and how do you develop your characters aside from the plot? The plot will always be there, but really, what it is, what are these characters doing within that plot?
Obviously SVU will have to come to an end at some point, and it seems like that decision will be up to Hargitay. As long as the show keeps bringing in the viewers and ripping from the headlines, there will be plenty of stories to tell. Plus, with Law & Order’s resurgence in recent years, the franchise is alive and well. People will likely be hearing “Dun dun” for quite some time, and not just as Dick Wolf’s ringtone.
It’s very likely that the series will be reaching 30 seasons in just two short years, but fans will just have to look forward to SVU reaching 600 episodes first. It’s hard to tell how much longer the series will run for, but at least there is still plenty to watch with Season 28. New episodes of Law & Order: SVU air on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, streaming the next day with a Peacock subscription.
