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Law & Order: Trial by Jury

Law & Order: Trial by Jury is an American legal drama television series about criminal trials set in New York City. It was the fourth series in Dick Wolf's Law & Order franchise. The show's almost exclusive focus was on the criminal trial of the accused, showing both the prosecution's and defense's preparation for trial, as well as the trial itself. The series was first announced on September 28, 2004. The series premiered on Thursday, March 3, 2005, and ended on January 21, 2006. Its regular time slot was Fridays 10/9 p.m. ET on NBC. The last episode aired on Court TV months after the series' cancellation.

For scripted court show, see Trial by Jury (TV series).

Law & Order: Trial by Jury

Law & Order: TBJ
Trial by Jury

Legal drama

Dick Wolf

Steven Zirnkilton (opening only)

Theme of Law & Order: Trial by Jury

United States

English

1

13

New York City

Arriflex 16 SR3
Zeiss Super Speed
Angenieux HR and Canon Lenses

42 minutes

March 3, 2005 (2005-03-03) –
January 21, 2006 (2006-01-21)

as Tracey Kibre, the Homicide Bureau Chief in the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Tracey has a black-and-white view of the law. She is tough, tenacious, focused, and professional. Kibre has a strong working relationship with her staff. As chief of the Homicide Bureau, she is a senior prosecutor, subordinate only to the District Attorney and the Executive ADA.

Bebe Neuwirth

as Kelly Gaffney, an ADA. Gaffney is Kibre's Deputy, who often challenges her senior colleague. She sees the law in shades of gray, and as a result is often more by-the-book.

Amy Carlson

as Hector Salazar, a DA investigator. Salazar retired from the police force following an on-the-job injury which would have forced him behind a desk.

Kirk Acevedo

as Chris Ravell, an NYPD detective assigned to the ADA Kibre's team and Hector Salazar's second partner, succeeding Lennie Briscoe. Cohen was credited as a guest appearance for episode 3 before being added to the main credits in episode 5. He did not appear in episode 4.

Scott Cohen

as Arthur Branch, the County of New York's District Attorney. Branch is a tough Republican, who practices both legal and political conservatism. Thompson was simultaneously a series regular in the same role on this show and on the original Law & Order.

Fred Dalton Thompson

as Lennie Briscoe, a DA investigator. Briscoe was the longest-serving police detective of the original Law & Order. Orbach succumbed to cancer over two months before the show's premiere, and he only appeared in the first two episodes of the series. From episode 3 onward, he is never seen or mentioned again for the remainder of the series.

Jerry Orbach

Cancellation[edit]

NBC announced on May 16, 2005, that Trial by Jury would not be returning for the 2005–2006 fall television season. The rival CBS procedural Numbers debuted in the midseason in late January 2005 and consistently beat NBC's Medical Investigation in the ratings, sending the latter show into hiatus and eventual cancellation, freeing up the time slot for Law & Order: Trial by Jury. Despite Trial by Jury's pedigree, Numbers' ratings remained strong, often beating Trial by Jury in both overall and key demographic ratings.[15]


In an October 2005 interview with the Associated Press, Wolf stated that NBC had assured him Trial by Jury would return for the fall of 2005, but had "blindsided" him by canceling it instead. Though still having reasonable ratings that could have given the series a second season, the main reason for the cancellation according to Kevin Reilly, NBC's brand-new president of entertainment at the time, was due to the networks acquisition of Sunday Night Football for what was coming in the 2005–2006 season, which took away programming space for NBC. As Reilly would state, "Now that we have football [on Sundays, beginning in 2006], we only have five nights of entertainment programming. When we had six nights, we could accommodate four Law & Orders."[16]


Trial by Jury was the first series of the Law & Order franchise to be canceled. The sets were reused by a series Wolf produced for NBC entitled Conviction which premiered Friday, March 3, 2006, lasting only one season before cancellation. The network Court TV (now TruTV) re-aired the entire series, including the episode "Eros in the Upper Eighties", which never aired on NBC before the series was canceled. TNT has aired the episode "Skeleton" on occasion, as the conclusion to the original series episode "Tombstone".


Actor Jerry Orbach’s death after filming the episode “41 Shots” was another reason the series was cancelled.

on Wolf Entertainment

Official website

at IMDb

Law & Order: Trial by Jury

at epguides.com

Law & Order: Trial by Jury