Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Filed in archive Business Trends on May 24, 2007

Lost last week amongst all the fall television show announcements was this little nugget from NBC Universal: Law & Order Criminal Intent will continue its run but on the USA cable network and repeats of the show will air on NBC.

To my simple way of thinking, this is a story about the economics of producing television shows. I have read that Criminal Intent costs about $3.5 million per episode to produce. USA Networks cannot afford a hefty fee like that. As a result, Dick Wolf had to agree to budget cuts and accept a lower fee in order to keep it on the air.

But let us not cry for Mr. Wolf. Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit did get renewed on NBC for next year. It is said that the Law & Order franchise generates about $1 Billion in ad sales and syndication annually.