List of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the first spinoff of Law & Order, is an American police procedural television series that focuses on crimes of sexual nature. While the victim is often murdered, this is not always the case, and victims often play prominent roles in episodes. The series frequently uses stories that are "ripped from the headlines" or based on real crimes. Such episodes take a real crime and fictionalize it by changing the details.[1] The series premiered on NBC on September 20, 1999, and started its twentieth season on September 27, 2018.

Most episode titles of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit between seasons one and twelve are a single word or initialism. From seasons thirteen to seventeen, the pattern changed to one in which episodes have a two-word title with the number of letters matching the season number. From season eighteen, the episode titles follow no fixed pattern.

As of February 21, 2019, 450 episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit have aired.

Series overview [ edit ]

Season Episodes Originally aired Nielsen ratings[2][3] First aired Last aired Rank Rating 1 22 September 20, 1999 ( ) May 19, 2000 ( 2000-05-19 ) 30 8.8[a] 2 21 October 20, 2000 ( ) May 11, 2001 ( 2001-05-11 ) 25 9.6 3 23 September 28, 2001 ( ) May 17, 2002 ( 2002-05-17 ) 12 10.4 4 25 September 27, 2002 ( ) May 16, 2003 ( 2003-05-16 ) 14 10.1 5 25 September 23, 2003 ( ) May 18, 2004 ( 2004-05-18 ) 18 8.7 6 23 September 21, 2004 ( ) May 24, 2005 ( 2005-05-24 ) 16 9.2[b] 7 22 September 20, 2005 ( ) May 16, 2006 ( 2006-05-16 ) 18 9.2[c] 8 22 September 19, 2006 ( ) May 22, 2007 ( 2007-05-22 ) 24 7.9 9 19 September 25, 2007 ( ) May 13, 2008 ( 2008-05-13 ) 22 7.6[d] 10 22 September 23, 2008 ( ) June 2, 2009 ( 2009-06-02 ) 26 6.7[e] 11 24 September 23, 2009 ( ) May 19, 2010 ( 2010-05-19 ) N/A N/A 12 24 September 22, 2010 ( ) May 18, 2011 ( 2011-05-18 ) N/A N/A 13 23 September 21, 2011 ( ) May 23, 2012 ( 2012-05-23 ) N/A N/A 14 24 September 26, 2012 ( ) May 22, 2013 ( 2013-05-22 ) N/A N/A 15 24 September 25, 2013 ( ) May 21, 2014 ( 2014-05-21 ) N/A N/A 16 23 September 24, 2014 ( ) May 20, 2015 ( 2015-05-20 ) N/A N/A 17 23 September 23, 2015 ( ) May 25, 2016 ( 2016-05-25 ) N/A N/A 18 21 September 21, 2016 ( ) May 24, 2017 ( 2017-05-24 ) N/A N/A 19 24 September 27, 2017 ( ) May 23, 2018 ( 2018-05-23 ) 30 5.6[f] 20 24[4] September 27, 2018 ( ) TBA TBA TBA

Episodes [ edit ]

Season 1 (1999–2000) [ edit ]

Robert Palm leaves the show as executive producer.

Michelle Hurd (Monique Jefferies) appears as a recurring character in episodes 1–13. She is then added to the main cast starting with the 14th episode.

Season 2 (2000–01) [ edit ]

Season 3 (2001–02) [ edit ]

Season 4 (2002–03) [ edit ]

BD Wong (George Huang) officially joins the cast.

Season 5 (2003–04) [ edit ]

Stephanie March (ADA Alexandra Cabot) leaves the cast after the episode "Loss". Her character is "killed off" and put into the Witness Protection Program. March (Cabot) is replaced by Diane Neal as ADA Casey Novak in the episode "Serendipity".

Season 6 (2004–05) [ edit ]

Stephanie March returns to reprise her role as ADA Alexandra Cabot for one episode ("Ghost"). Her character was a regular on SVU for seasons 2–5.

Season 7 (2005–06) [ edit ]

Season 8 (2006–07) [ edit ]

Connie Nielsen had a six episode arc as Det. Dani Beck from the episode "Clock" to the episode "Cage", not appearing in "Infiltrated".

Season 9 (2007–08) [ edit ]

Season 10 (2008–09) [ edit ]

Season 11 (2009–10) [ edit ]

Christine Lahti had a four-episode arc as Executive ADA Sonya Paxton; from the season premiere episode "Unstable" to "Hammered". She also returns in the eighth episode, "Turmoil".

Stephanie March rejoined the cast as ADA Alexandra Cabot starting with the episode "Hardwired" to the episode "Witness".

Sharon Stone had a four-episode arc as ADA Jo Marlowe from the episode "Torch" to the season finale episode "Shattered".

Season 12 (2010–11) [ edit ]

Season 13 (2011–12) [ edit ]

Season 14 (2012–13) [ edit ]

Raúl Esparza has a continuous arc as ADA Rafael Barba starting with the third episode.

Season 15 (2013–14) [ edit ]

Season 16 (2014–15) [ edit ]

Season 17 (2015–16) [ edit ]

Andy Karl has a continuous arc as Sergeant Mike Dodds starting with "Maternal Instincts" to "Heartfelt Passages".

BD Wong reprised his role as Dr. George Huang in the episode "Depravity Standard". This was his fourth appearance on the show since his departure at the end of season 12.

Warren Leight leaves the show as executive producer at the end of the season.

Season 18 (2016–17) [ edit ]

Rick Eid takes over as executive producer. In May 2017, it was announced that he would depart the series as executive producer at the end of this season.

Season 19 (2017–18) [ edit ]

Michael Chernuchin takes over as executive producer.

Philip Winchester joins the cast in the thirteenth episode as Peter Stone following the cancellation of Chicago Justice . [318]

. Raúl Esparza departs the cast in the 13th episode, "The Undiscovered Country".[319]

Season 20 (2018–19) [ edit ]

Home video releases [ edit ]