NEW YORK - There was never any doubt that, someday, "Law & Order" would come to an end.
But the death sentence handed down by NBC on Friday caught many observers by surprise. Viewers weren't prepared to say farewell to this beloved TV warhorse. Not this way, with this sort of abruptness. And not with it on the brink of entering the history book as TV's longest-running drama.
What had been intended as the 20th-season finale, a solid but unexceptional episode, will air May 24 as the series conclusion. This would seem an injustice to the show's proud legacy. And an unceremonious end for its fans.
Maybe there weren't enough fans (this season, viewership has averaged 7.3 million viewers, the show's lowest ever and less than half the number at its height a decade ago). Maybe the show was too expensive to produce. Maybe NBC just thought it was too old.
Even so, "Law & Order" had been considered a TV fixture and a good shot for renewal next season. Then it would be poised to surpass "Gunsmoke," a CBS western that ran 20 seasons from 1955 to 1975.
That record-breaking feat has been an enduring dream of the series' creator, Dick Wolf, who not only furnished NBC with this so-called "mother ship" but expanded it into two successful "Law & Order" spinoffs. He also will shepherd the just-announced "LOLA" (short for "Law & Order: Los Angeles") premiering this fall.
"Law & Order" axed after 20 years
Originally Posted by Mime Taxidermy
