Law & Order: SVU was the first spin-off of which TV series?

Law & Order: SVU was the first spin-off of Law & Order. The series expanded Dick Wolf’s original NBC crime franchise by focusing on detectives assigned to New York’s Special Victims Unit.

SVU premiered on September 20, 1999, after the original Law & Order had already established its police-and-prosecutor format. Its stories center on sexually based offenses and other cases involving vulnerable victims, giving the franchise a more specialized investigative focus. The cast initially included Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler, Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson, and Dann Florek returning as Captain Don Cragen from the parent series.

The wording can cause confusion because several later shows also belong to the franchise, including Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, Law & Order: Los Angeles, and Law & Order: Organized Crime. Those are related spin-offs, but they came after SVU. Homicide: Life on the Street is a separate police drama, while Chicago P.D. belongs to Dick Wolf’s Chicago franchise rather than the original Law & Order family.