Law & Order: Organized Crime premiered in 2021. The series debuted on NBC on April 1, 2021, as a spin-off of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order.
The premiere brought Christopher Meloni back as Detective Elliot Stabler, a character he had played on SVU for more than a decade. Its first episode formed part of a two-hour crossover with SVU, making the launch especially significant for the wider Law & Order franchise.
The show’s production was originally planned for the 2020–21 television season, but its launch was pushed back during the COVID-19 pandemic. That delay can cause confusion with announcements made in 2020, but the actual broadcast premiere took place in 2021.
Organized Crime initially aired on NBC and followed Stabler as he joined the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau. Later, the series moved toward Peacock for its fifth season, but that change does not affect its original premiere year.