'Law & Order: SVU' Gets Crossover Episode With New Christopher Meloni Spinoff 'Organized Crime'

Law & Order: Organized Crime will debut after a new episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that will reintroduce Detective Elliot Stabler, a decade after Christopher Meloni left SVU. The crossover will start with a new SVU episode on Thursday, April 1 at 9 p.m. ET, leading into the Organized Crime premiere at 10 p.m. ET on NBC afterward. NBC and Dick Wolf have been developing Organized Crime for over a year, but the show had been delayed due to a major behind-the-scene change and the coronavirus pandemic.

NBC has not released a description for the SVU episode, but Organized Crime will see Stabler returning to the New York Police Department after he suffered a personal tragedy. While trying to rebuild his life at home, Stabler is tasked with putting together a new elite task force, whose job it is to take down organized crime syndicates. The main cast also includes Dylan McDermott and former Bones star Tamara Taylor.

Organized Crime's showrunner will be Ilene Chaiken, who created The L Word. She was brought in after Matt Olmstead, a veteran of Wolf's One Chicago franchise, left the project over creative issues. The show also got off to a slow start due to the coronavirus pandemic. Still, NBC left the 10 p.m. ET timeslot open for the show all season, opting to air Dateline episodes after SVU until Organized Crime was ready. Organized Crime got a 13-episode order. The executive producers include Wolf, Chaiken, Terry Miller, Peter Jankowski, and Fred Berner.

While Organized Crime is getting off the ground, SVU is chugging along in its 22nd season, as the longest-running primetime drama in American television history. The show still stars Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson and Ice-T as Sergeant Odafin Tutola, the two remaining stars from Meloni's original run on the show. SVU's main cast also includes Peter Scanavino, Kelli Giddish, Jamie Gray Hyder, and Demore Barnes. The next new episode, "Hunt, Trap, Rape, And Release," airs on Thursday, Feb. 18 on NBC.

During production on Organized Crime, Meloni and Hargitay have been sharing selfies on Instagram almost non-stop. During the first Zoom table read for Stabler's return on SVU, the chemistry between Hargitay and Meloni instantly reignited, as if they never stopped working together, showrunner Warren Leight told Entertainment Tonight.

"In some ways, it had the feel of an opening night on Broadway: lots of anticipation, excitement, even nervousness," Leight said. "We had many well-wishers from the network, studio, and Wolf Entertainment join us. The moment Benson and Stabler had their first scene, everything fell into place. I just wish we could have all gone to an opening party when it was over."