Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (often shortened to Law & Order: SVU or SVU) is an American police procedural crime drama television series created by Dick Wolf for NBC. The first spin-off of Law & Order, it starred Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler until Meloni left the series in 2011 after 12 seasons, and Mariska Hargitay as Detective (ultimately promoted to captain) Olivia Benson, now the commanding officer of the Special Victims Unit after originally having been Stabler's partner in a fictionalized version of the New York City Police Department. Meloni has since reprised his role as Stabler in the spin-off series Law & Order: Organized Crime (2021–present). Law & Order: Special Victims Unit follows the style of the original Law & Order in that some episodes are loosely based on real crimes that have received media attention.
The show is produced by Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television. It premiered on September 20, 1999. After the premiere of its 21st season in September 2019, the series became the longest-running primetime live-action series on American television. Since the end of the original run of the main Law & Order series in 2010, SVU has been the only live-action primetime series that debuted in the 1990s that has remained in continuous production. As of February 22, 2024, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has aired 543 original episodes, well surpassing the episode count of the original Law & Order series. In terms of all-time episode count for a primetime scripted series, SVU now ranks fourth behind The Simpsons (with 750 episodes), Gunsmoke (with 635 episodes), and Lassie (with 591 episodes). The 23rd season premiered on September 23, 2021, during which the show aired its milestone 500th episode. The 24th season premiered on September 22, 2022. On April 10, 2023, NBC announced that the series was renewed for a 25th season, which premiered on January 18, 2024.
The series has received 91 award nominations, winning 33 awards. Mariska Hargitay was the first regular cast member on any Law & Order series to win an Emmy Award when she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2006.