Ice-T Explains Why He Is Missing From So Many ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Episodes This Season

Sergeant Odafin “Fin” Tutuola has been conspicuously absent from much of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit this season, but up until now, there’s been no word as to why.

In a new interview, actor-rapper Ice-T told press it was a business decision from NBC that’s tied to budgetary reasons and the return of Kelli Giddish (who plays Detective Amanda Rollins) as a series regular.

“It’s just basically business,” he said in a TMZ video. “They brought Kelli back, and at the end of the day, they couldn’t really keep both of us on full-time, as far as budget-wise. So they said, Ice, we’ll have you come in and out this year, that way we could bring… Everybody wanted Kelli back, and we’ve got new cops and stuff like that.”

Giddish’s return wasn’t the only shakeup this season of SVU. Series regulars Juliana Martinez and Octavio Pisano left just before season 27, while Aimé Donna Kelly (who plays Captain Curry) was promoted to series regular.

While Ice-T has only appeared in half of this season’s SVU episodes—as opposed to last season, where he appeared in every episode—he doesn’t want fans to worry, and mentioned that he will be in more episodes towards the back half.

“I’m gonna be sprinkled throughout this season… I’m not leaving the show,” he said. “I’m more concerned with going to Season 28… Everything was cool with me, I understood. I said, are you getting rid of me? They said, No way. We can’t imagine Law & Order without you.”

He thanked the crew behind SVU for treating him well over the past two-plus decades.

“I’ve been on this show for 27 years. I’m not gonna say nothing negative about that show, they’ve taken care of me for so long,” he said. “So don’t worry about me… I’ll be all right. But I know fans are upset. I’m kind of glad the fans are upset, because what if I was missing and nobody cared? That would be something to worry about, but the fact that the fans wanted to see a little bit more Fin, that’s good.”

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit airs every Thursday at 9 PM on NBC.