'Law & Order' Spinoff Series Canceled at NBC

In a shocking development, NBC has canceled Law & Order: For The Defense, the newest spin-off of Dick Wolf's long-running franchise. The network had ordered the show to go straight-to-series back in May and had even planned to air it as the lead-off of an all-Law & Order night this fall. It's not clear how far along the project was when the plug was pulled, as no casting was ever announced.

NBC and Universal Television declined to explain the reason for the show's sudden cancellation, reports The Wrap. For The Defense was going to air at 8 p.m. ET on Thursdays, leading into Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 23 and Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2. The two remaining Law & Order shows will debut on Sept. 23, with a two-hour SVU episode beginning the night at 9 p.m. ET. The Blacklist will eventually take over the 8 p.m. ET Thursdays slot when it debuts on Oct. 21, reports Deadline.

The new series featured Carol Mendelsohn (CSI) as showrunner and executive producer, alongside Wolf, Peter Jankowski, Julie Weitz, and Arthur Forney. The premise for the show was to highlight the work of defense attorneys. "This new show is exciting for me personally," Wolf said in a statement in May. "We spent the last 30 years on shows that played offense. Now it will be great to play defense, and being able to do it with Carol is an honor and an opportunity for both of us to do television that hasn't been done before."

NBC sounded excited about the project when it was first announced. We can't wait to bring audiences the latest chapter of Law & Order, which will explore a different angle of the criminal justice system," Lisa Katz, President, Scripted Programming, NBCUniversal Television, and Streaming, said when the show was revealed. "We're excited about Dick Wolf's perpetually thought-provoking approach as well his collaboration with Carol Mendelsohn, who we have been eager to do a series with for a long time."

For the Defense would have been the second new Law & Order series to launch in 2021. Earlier this year, the highly-anticipated Organized Crime debuted, with Christopher Meloni back as Det. Elliot Stabler. Organized Crime was met with big ratings, suggesting the franchise was getting some revived interest after SVU being the only iteration with new episodes for years. In an interview with PopCulture, Organized Crime star Ainsley Seiger said she was excited about the idea of seeing trials from a different perspective.

"I'm so excited because I think one of the best aspects of Law & Order is, 'Who's your favorite ADA? Who's your favorite Assistant District Attorney?' It's like the most common question that I get from fans," Seiger told us. "So to have an entire spin-off dedicated to that side of the system, I think is so genius of them to do."