NBC Announces Fall Schedule With New Addition to ‘Law & Order' Franchise

NBC unveiled a fall prime-time lineup Tuesday with one new series, featuring "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" alumnus Christopher Meloni reprising his role as New York Police Department Detective Elliot Stabler.

None of the three series that premiered on NBC last fall will return for second seasons -- the comedies "Perfect Harmony" and "Sunnyside" and legal drama "Bluff City Law."

The musical comedy-drama "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist," which premiered Jan. 7, will begin its second season at midseason. There was no announcement on the fate of the drama "Council of Dads" which premiered March 24.

Other series not returning include the revival of "Will & Grace," which ran for three seasons; the comedy "The Good Place," which ended its four-season run Jan. 30; and two series that premiered at midseason, the comedy "Indebted" and the crime drama, "Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector."

The crime drama "Blindspot" is scheduled to conclude its fifth and final season in July.

"Thanks to the ingenuity of our creative teams and our partner studios, NBC has assembled a remarkably stable schedule at a time when stability is called for," NBC Entertainment Chairman Paul Telegdy said.

"With the reopening of the Universal lot for select productions this week, we are confident that our schedule will premiere intact later this fall," he said. "We design shows for longevity and this schedule remains a powerful propulsive force for shows to start here and carry on entertaining across generations."

Telegdy said NBC will "offer all of this season's showrunners the chance to enrich their team with an additional diverse writer at any level."

"It is not the solution by any means, but it is something we can do right now to take a positive step," he said.

For the third consecutive year, each returning show will also participate in the network's Female Forward, Emerging Director Program or Alternative Directors Program, all of which provide opportunities for women and ethnically diverse directors on scripted and alternative series, Telegdy said.

The series featuring Meloni will be called "Law & Order: Organized Crime." The actor co-starred on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" from its premiere in 1999 through 2011, when he was unable to reach an agreement on a new contract. His character's absence was explained by saying he had retired.

In "Law & Order: Organized Crime," Stabler "returns to the NYPD to battle organized crime after a devastating personal loss" while "the city and police department have changed dramatically in the decade he's been away, and he must adapt to a criminal justice system in the midst of its own moment of reckoning," according to NBC.

The series "will follow Stabler's journey to find absolution and rebuild his life, while leading a new elite task force that is taking apart the city's most powerful criminal syndicates one by one."

NBC also announced its crime comedy-drama "Good Girls" will begin its fourth season at midseason, just like its first three.

NBC's fall prime-time schedule consists of nine hours of drama, four hours each of "Dateline NBC" and sports; three hours of alternative programming, one hour of situation comedies and one hour of "Saturday Night Live" reruns.

NBC is the last of the five major broadcast networks to announce programming plans for the 2020-21 season amid an uncertain start to the season because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The other four announced their plans between May 11-21.

Here is NBC's fall schedule:
Sunday: "Football Night in America"; "NBC Sunday Night Football";
Monday: "The Voice"; "Manifest";
Tuesday: "The Voice"; "This Is Us"; "New Amsterdam";
Wednesday: "Chicago Med"; "Chicago Fire"; "Chicago P.D.";
Thursday: "Superstore"; "Brooklyn Nine-Nine"; "Law & Order: SVU"; "Law & Order: Organized Crime";
Friday: "The Blacklist"; "Dateline NBC"; Saturday: "Dateline Saturday Dateline Mystery"; "Saturday Night Live" reruns.