Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Ice-T addressed his future on the show after his screen time was reduced — and the cast experienced a shakeup.
“Last year, what happened was, they brought Kelli Giddish back. So they told me, ‘Basically, we’re going to bring Kelli Giddish back. We’re going to bring your scenes down a little bit,'” Ice-T, 68, recalled on the Saturday, July 11, episode of TMZ’s podcast.
Ice-T had concerns that his time as Fin on Law & Order: SVU was coming to an end.
“I asked them, ‘Are you kicking me off the show?’ They said, ‘No, we’re just going to move some things around budget-wise,'” he continued. “Now, somebody like me with free time, people think, ‘Oh, they take you off the show, you lose money.’ No, I make money because now I have time to do other things.”
Ice-T added: “When you have to put in five days a week on a show, it kind of restricts my hustle.”
The actor was missing from more episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit than usual when season 27 aired earlier this year. However, Ice-T confirmed he is coming back in season 28 — and this time Fin will play a larger role on screen.
“So this next season, I’m going to be in every episode,” Ice-T revealed. “But it was one of those things where the boss comes to you, and you don’t go, ‘Well, I’ve been on here 27 seasons.'”
Ice-T chose to take the news of his decreased screen time in stride, adding, “You go and do it. I got it, it’s all good. So it wasn’t because of Kelli. It was just the way they moved. And I was more concerned about getting to season 28. I didn’t care about that. I was just like, ‘Let’s just keep going. I want to go to season 30.'”
The original Law & Order premiered in 1990 and aired until 2010. It was then pulled off the air before returning to NBC in 2022. The TV universe has since grown with spinoffs Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, Law & Order: LA, Law & Order: True Crime and Law & Order: Organized Crime.
Law & Order as a franchise has been undergoing Law & Order: Organized Crime various shakeups over the years. Most recently, news broke in May 2025 that Octavio Pisano and Juliana Martinez were leaving Law & Order: SVU at the end of season 26. Pisano, 39, joined Law & Order: SVU in season 23 while Martinez, 35, came on board during season 26.
Giddish’s Amanda Rollins, meanwhile, officially returned to SVU in season 27 after she departed in the middle of season 24 in 2022 following more than a decade on the show. She was a guest star in various episodes throughout seasons 25 and 26 before being confirmed as a series regular for the latest season.
Then, there is Law & Order: Organized Crime on Peacock, which swapped showrunners from season to season. The police procedural, which premiered in 2021 on NBC, starred Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler, reprising his role from SVU.
When Stabler got his own show, Matt Olmstead took on the role of showrunner but ultimately stepped down later that year. He was replaced by Ilene Chaiken, who remained on the show for one season before Barry O’Brien took over. Bryan Goluboff became the showrunner for season 3 but left after three months. He was replaced by Sean Jablonski, who left due to “creative differences,” and David Graziano took over for the final episodes of the season.
After Law & Order: Organized Crime was renewed for a fourth season, John Shiban was brought on as the newest showrunner, but he didn’t stick around. By season 5, Olmstead was brought back to finish up the scripts as an executive producer before the show was ultimately canceled in April.
