Law & Order: LA
Law & Order: LA, originally titled Law & Order: Los Angeles, is an American police procedural and legal drama television series set in Los Angeles, where it was produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and developed by Blake Masters, it premiered on NBC on September 29, 2010, as the fifth series in Wolf's Law & Order franchise. Law & Order: LA debuted after the original Law & Order ended its 20-year run the previous spring. The show received a full-season pickup on October 18, 2010.[1] On January 18, 2011, however, NBC announced that it was putting the series on hold indefinitely. According to a representative of the show, the scheduling change was not caused entirely by the mid-season cast shake-up.[2] The network later announced a return date for the series, April 11, 2011;[3] and the final episode scheduled for July 11, 2011.[4] On May 13, 2011, NBC canceled the series after one season.[5][6]
Law & Order: LA
- Law & Order: Los Angeles (original title)
- L&O: LA
- LOLA
Theme of Law & Order: LA
- Atli Örvarsson
- Mike Post (theme)
United States
English
1
22
NBC Studios Burbank in and around Los Angeles
45 minutes (approx.)
September 29, 2010 –
July 11, 2011
Production[edit]
History and development[edit]
On January 10, 2010, NBC programming chief Angela Bromstad announced at the winter TCA Press Tour that the network was in talks with Dick Wolf about producing a new series, titled Law & Order: Los Angeles, and indicated that NBC was seeking to hire writers for a pilot.[7]
Reports in early May suggested that NBC had made the decision to pick up Law & Order: Los Angeles with a 13-episode order for fall 2010, having brought Brotherhood creator Blake Masters on board to co-create the new series set in Los Angeles with Wolf.[8] NBC confirmed the new series order on May 14, 2010.[9] René Balcer served as showrunner and head writer on the series and executive produced alongside the pilot's writer Blake Masters, Wolf, Peter Jankowski and Christopher Misiano, previously of The West Wing.[10]
The show received a full season pickup on October 18, 2010.[1] It underwent a cast shake-up for a creative overhaul in January 2011; Skeet Ulrich, Regina Hall, and Megan Boone departed the cast.[11][12][13] The show jumped to the episodes with the new cast airing first. The remaining episodes with the original cast began airing on May 30, 2011 with the episode "Plummer Park".[4]
Broadcast history[edit]
The show was originally broadcast in the Wednesday 10:00 p.m. timeslot after Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC. Following the hiatus,[14] the series moved to Monday nights at 10:00 p.m.[3]
Cancellation[edit]
NBC canceled Law & Order: LA on May 13, 2011, almost one year after NBC canceled the original Law & Order series.[5][6][15] NBC Chairman Robert Greenblatt gave creator Dick Wolf credit for reinventing the show and said, "We tried but we didn't have the time period to bring it back if it isn't going to show signs of growth."[16]
Greenblatt also said to TV Guide when they asked about the cancellation, "We moved it around, took it off the schedule and tried to revamp it. It improved significantly creatively, and it didn't have a great lead-in on Mondays. It was one of those tough decisions: do we stick with it or was it time to move on?"[17] Before the upfronts Greenblatt added, "Law & Order: LA, I think we just didn't get it off the ground right. It was put on the schedule without a pilot last fall before I arrived. There was all kinds of chaos going on: the show did well then it was taken off. In a different scenario that might have worked better but we just thought it wasn't a strong enough player to continue into next season."[18] Showrunner René Balcer released a video shortly after its cancellation was announced, urging fans to call NBC to renew the series, and stating that the season would end with a cliff-hanger.[19][20] (However, due to the episodes being aired out of sequence, the episode he referred to, "Hayden Tract", was in fact not the final episode to be aired.)[20]
Law & Order: LA marks the third Law & Order series to be canceled by NBC; the second to be canceled after only one season, Law & Order: Trial by Jury—canceled in 2005—being the first.
Video game[edit]
Telltale Games was originally set to develop a Law & Order: LA video game due for release in 2011.[64] However, due to the cancellation of the show, Telltale Games decided to make another game set in the Law & Order universe called Law & Order: Legacies.[65]
Home media[edit]
On September 20, 2011, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released Law & Order: Los Angeles – The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.
Reception[edit]
U.S. television ratings[edit]
Law & Order: LA aired on Monday nights, following The Event.
The debut of Law & Order: LA did fairly well, bringing in 10.6 million viewers and averaging a 3.2 rating with viewers ages 18–49. That was enough to dominate the 10 p.m. slot, and give NBC its biggest show of the week so far, and improve the network's time slot average by 63 percent versus last season.[66][67] Although when it returned revamped on Monday night on April 11, 2011 back-to-back, the episodes together averaged 6.10 million viewers with a 1.5/4% rating with viewers ages 18–49.[68]