L
aw & Order: SVU
has never been a numerical powerhouse.
It’s never hit No. 1 in the Nielsen household ratings, and only come within sniffing distance of the Top 10.
For many years, those numbers were the only ones that could possibly matter to a show—the higher it ranked, the more the network could sell space to advertisers for, so the more money the show made. But when “repurposing” came into vogue in the 1990s, a show didn’t have to wait weeks, months, or years for a rerun; it could air within days on a different channel and pull in even more viewers. Few series could handle that much repetition but
SVU,
like the Mother Ship, was a workhorse.
All of which means that household ratings were never the end product of
SVU
’s success story, though they are parsed minutely first thing the morning after a show. On average over nine seasons (all numbers are according to Nielsen Media Research),
SVU
brought in 10.7 million viewers. It hit its high point in season four with 13.7 million viewers and a 9.4 household rating, higher than its debut season of 11.2 million viewers and an 8.1 household rating, but not even scraping the tip of the iceberg that was the year’s No. 1 show—CBS’
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
, which brought in a 13.7 household rating and 21.6 million viewers.
Season seven, the year Mariska Hargitay won the show’s sole lead-acting Emmy, failed to see a significant bump (12.1 million viewers with an 8.2 household rating), nor did the Emmy encourage more viewers to turn in—viewership dropped in season eight to 10.6 million viewers and a 7.2 household rating. (Note: season seven inaugurated Nielsen’s counting what it calls “Live+7”—namely, the live rating for the show as it airs, plus seven days of viewership subsequent from DVRs.)
Yet the bigger picture deserves a moment of mention. As the industry routinely laments, all TV shows have a shrinking viewership. Arguably, a show still can pull in impressive numbers—the No. 1 show for 2007-08 (
SVU’
s season nine) was Tuesday’s
American Idol
on Fox and it had 30.6 million viewers for a 16.1 household rating.
But those numbers are paltry compared to just a decade or two ago, and they’re largely linked to zeitgeist shows—the
Survivor
finales, or any one of the
American Idol
nights. Over a ten-year period
SVU
has managed to hold a firm average of between 10−13 million viewers, which proves its durability. And unlike the
Survivors
and
American Idol
s, it retains its repeat viewability.
Additionally, it might be said that Dick Wolf’s height (6’4”) matches his stature in the industry. According to a 2006 list of the top 100 celebrities published by
Forbes
, the Law & Order magnate ranked number 50 in terms of power and number 12 in terms of money. According to the magazine, his earnings totaled $70 million, primarily from syndication deals.
Summary of Seasonal Household Ratings for L&O, SVU and CI, 1999−Present
1999-2000
SVU
: 8.1/14 (11,169,000 viewers)
L&O
: 10.8/18
2000-01
SVU
: 8.5/16 (11,944,000 viewers)
L&O
: 11.1/19
2001-02
SVU
: 9.3/17 (13,499,000 viewers)
L&O
: 11.4/19
2002-03
SVU
: 9.4/17 (13,772,000 viewers)
L&O
: 10.5/18
CI
: 8.4/13
2003-04
SVU
: 8.3/14 (12,059,000 viewers)
L&O
: 10.0/17
CI
: 8.0/12
2004-05
SVU
: 8.3/14 (12,070,000 viewers)
L&O
: 8.1/13
CI
: 7.1/11
2005-06
SVU
: 8.2/13 (12,111,000 viewers)
L&O
: 7.0/11
CI
: 6.5/10
2006-07
SVU
: 7.2/12 (10,621,000 viewers)
L&O
: 5.9/10
CI
: 6.0/9
2007-08
SVU
: 7.6/12 (11,374,000 viewers)
L&O
: 7.2/12
CI
: 5.1/8
2008-09
SVU
: 6.8/11 (10,251,000 viewers)
L&O
: 5.5/9
CI
: 2.8/4
SOURCE:
Nielsen Media Research Galaxy Explorer
APPENDIX A
SVU
BIOGRAPHIES
Dick Wolf
CREATOR, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Television has many producers, writers, and directors, but relatively few architects. Dick Wolf, who currently oversees three of NBC Universal’s most profitable and long-running projects—all part of the Law & Order brand—is just such a designer.
Wolf grew up in and around television; his father worked in press relations for NBC, which gave the son access as a child to the
Howdy Doody
peanut gallery. An education at prestigious prep schools (one of Wolf ’s schoolmates was future President George W. Bush) led him to a career in advertising, where he coined such slogans as National Airline’s “Fly Me” and “You can’t beat Crest for fighting cavities,” a saying he admits actually means nothing at all.
Wolf shifted into film and television in the late 1970s and hit an early stride as a producer and writer on NBC’s
Miami Vice
, where he first began developing the concept that would become
Law & Order
. The idea did not catch on immediately, and the Mother Ship’s pilot was rejected at every network before NBC incorporated it as an episode in the series almost two years later. The show was initially set up so that it could be run as two “strips” of thirty minutes each, which would make it easier to sell in syndication—but none of the L&O shows have ever run that way. Instead, audiences showed they liked them in full, sixty-minute versions.
With branding learned from his Procter & Gamble days, Wolf knew that once
Law & Order
caught on it could work in several different iterations.
L&O
debuted on NBC in 1990 and is set to become television’s longest-running drama (barring any short-sightedness in NBC’s executive offices) once it reaches its twentieth season. Not long after the Mother Ship won the primetime Emmy for Outstanding Drama in 1997, the idea for a second series (
Law & Order: SVU
) was born; it premiered in 1999.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
followed in 2001 and ultimately shifted from NBC to USA Network. But audiences have felt satiated—
Law & Order: Trial By Jury
was canceled after just thirteen episodes in 2005. In ensuing years, L&O shows have also taken off overseas; both France and England are producing their own, localized versions.
While the Law & Order shows are his most successful ventures, Wolf has hardly restrained himself to just those programs. His company, Wolf Films, produced
Twin Towers
, which won a 2003 Oscar in the Short Documentary category; in 2007 he won six Emmy Awards (out of seventeen nominations) for his HBO original movie
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
.
His upcoming projects include a documentary on The Doors, to be narrated by Johnny Depp. As a college student, Wolf booked rock bands for live shows; he tapped Jim Morrison’s legendary group for a performance early in its career. At the moment the film is “in the pipeline,” according to a representative. Wolf also has completed a pilot called
Lost and Found
for NBC.
Neal Baer
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/SHOWRUNNER
Sometimes, it just helps to have a physician on call.
Law & Order: SVU
wasn’t quite on life support when Dr. Neal Baer was ordered in, but it’s likely that, without him, the show’s plug would have been pulled long before it really got going.
But to backtrack a bit: Baer has more degrees and awards on his shelf than you can shake a stethoscope at, including master’s in education and sociology and a doctorate of laws; he’s taught elementary school and worked in Africa to help HIV/AIDS mothers tell their stories via photography. And that’s just scraping the surface. Yet almost since he entered the medical profession, Neal Baer—who earned his M.D. from Harvard University and interned in pediatrics at a Los Angeles hospital—has found ways to merge his interest in television with his scientific expertise.
One of his earliest television jobs involved writing for boyhood pal John Wells on ABC’s
China Beach
in the 1990s; that relationship led to a longer-term gig as writer and executive producer on NBC’s
ER
, which Wells also executive produced. While there, Baer used his medical know-how to lend the show verisimilitude; by the time
SVU
was ready to bring him aboard in 2000, he has mastered the art of showrunning as well as translating complex stories for the small screen.
And his arrival on
SVU
, by all accounts, saved the show—which had floundered in its first season. Baer brought with him a compelling vision of what the series could be, weaving his interests in public policy, medicine, and sexual issues to help create a potent, fascinating array of stories that have both entertained and educated viewers. With seven Emmy nominations (all for
ER
thus far), it’s surely only a matter of time before he’s recognized in a similar fashion for his
SVU
contributions.
For now, Baer will just have to be satisfied with other prizes, including the Valentine Davies Award, given in 2004 by the Writers Guild of America, West for “public service efforts in both the entertainment industry and the community at large, bringing dignity to and raising the standard for writers everywhere”; the Special Individual Achievement Award from the Media Project, given in 2003; the Leadership Award from NOFAS; the Loop Award from Lupus LA for educating the public about lupus and autoimmune diseases; and the Socially Responsible Medicine Award from Physicians for Social Responsibility for “accomplishment in crafting compelling health messages.”
During his initial
ER
gig as a writer in 1994, Baer was spending every Saturday as a doctor at the Venice Family Clinic, doing ambulatory medicine. He then had a residency from 1997 through 2002 at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, all the while still working for the NBC show. To this day, despite a hectic
SVU
schedule, “I go to Africa a lot during hiatus,” he says. “Two summers ago, I treated 240 kids in Kenya.”
Why? “Because there’s life outside of television,” Baer points out. “It’s very curative for me. It grounds me.”
Ted Kotcheff
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/EPISODE DIRECTOR
Finding your niche in the entertainment industry can take years for even the most talented, but there are those—like Ted Kotcheff—who are lucky enough to find their calling from the start.
Kotcheff is a director, an organized man who can see the shots before the camera does and get his actors to do what he needs to tell the story. That he serves as an executive producer on
Law & Order: SVU
is a function of his veteran status in the industry—producing comes naturally after over fifty years behind the scenes—and he still directs the occasional episode.
In those five decades Kotcheff’s gone from being the youngest drama director in Canada (at twenty-four) thanks to his work at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Television Service, to a director of plays and musicals in London’s West End, to a feature film director with such credits as
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
(1974, a film based on a book by his good friend Mordecai Richter; eleven years later Kotcheff would make
Joshua Then and Now
, also by Richter),
Fun with Dick and Jane
(1977), and
North Dallas Forty
(1979), which he also wrote.
His work covers a wide swath of subject matter and, periodically, more lowbrow fare: the wildly successful
First Blood
(the 1982 Rambo movie) and the wildly juvenile
Weekend at Bernie’s
(1989), both of which he directed.
His long stint with
SVU
ranks was unplanned; he had been working on a film about Hitler in the late 1990s, but it fell through. His agent informed him that Dick Wolf was planning a new TV series. A friend of Kotcheff’s had been a producer on the Wolf-penned 1992 feature film
School Ties
, so it seemed the two were destined to meet. The radical nature of what
SVU
wanted to do appealed to Kotcheff, who signed on at the series’ inception.
And he’s been one of the few constants at
SVU
from Day One, riding with the lows (that difficult first season, the loss of several writers) and the highs (the Emmy nominations, Mariska Hargitay’s win, the critical acclaim). Over the years, “Uncle Ted” (as he’s been dubbed) has become not just an
eminence grise
on the New Jersey set, but a calm center around which cast and crew seem to gather.