‘Law & Order: SVU’ Not Airing Thursday Night Due to Series Premiere of ‘The Enemy Within’

Olivia Benson and the rest of the SVU team are taking the night off, since NBC is airing a repeat of The Enemy Within pilot episode instead of a new episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit at 10 p.m. ET Thursday.

NBC will be running the pilot episode of The Enemy Within, a new drama series starring Morris Chestnut (Rosewood) as FBI Special Agent Will Keaton, who has to work with a convicted traitor, former CIA Deputy Director of Operations Erica Shepard, to stop terrorists. Shepherd is played by Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter), who sat in prison for three years before Keaton’s boss tells him to work with her to find Tal, a terrorist who killed 14 people in multiple attacks on the same day.

The peacock network previously aired the pilot after The Voice on Monday in the show’s regular Monday, 10 p.m. ET timeslot. The episode drew 5.8 million viewers and a 1.2 18-49 rating, reports TV Line.

As for SVU, it will not be back in action until Thursday, March 14 with the episode “Missing,” in which the team tries to find who locked a child in an abandoned car. On Thursday, March 7, NBC is airing a repeat of “Accredo,” the episode inspired by the NXIVM cult, which debuted in October.

Last week’s episode, “Facing Demons,” was SVU‘s 450th episode. It brought back Dean Winters’ Detective Brian Cassidy in a sequel to last year’s “Chasing Demons.” In the new hour, Cassidy finally admitted to Benson (Mariska Hargitay) that he was sexually abused when he was a child. The suicide of a young man abused by the same little league coach who molested Cassidy in the 1980s gave the former SVU detective the opportunity to confront the man who assaulted him in court.

Earlier this month, NBC aired “Brothel,” the perfect case for Valentine’s Day. It involved the team stopping a ring of pop-up brothels that were shockingly the brainchild of Judge Kofax (John Rothman). The episode featured Jennifer Esposito as Sgt. Phoebe Baker, who worked with Fin (Ice-T) to solve the case. While there was some sexual tension between the two, the episode ended with Baker telling Fin she was dating someone else.

This was Baker and Esposito’s first appearance on the show in 20 years. The character did not die at the end, but there is no word on her coming back.

“Anything can happen. She doesn’t die,” Ice-T told TVInsider when asked if Esposito would be back. “Of course, in the Wolf Films world, you can come back as another character, like Peter Scanavino and Kelli Giddish have. As for me, I’ve appeared on five Wolf television shows!”

Law & Order: SVU airs on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET, while The Enemy Within airs on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET.

Photo credit: NBC