Law and Order SVU Paley Center special airs tonight on NBC

By Brittany Frederick | Jan 2, 2020

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT -- Season: 21 -- Pictured: Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins, Peter Scanavino as Detective Sonny Carisi, Ice T as Detective Odafin "Fin" Tutuola, Mariska Hargitay as Lieutenant Olivia Benson -- (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC) /

Fans of Law & Order: SVU will want to tune in tonight as NBC is airing new cast and crew interviews in The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU.

It’s another week before Law & Order: SVU returns, but NBC is using that time to praise the Dick Wolf series. Tonight the network airs The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU, a new hour-long documentary special.

Wolf and the entire current cast of Special Victims Unit will appear in the show, including star and executive producer Mariska Hargitay, who rose to international fame for her portrayal of Olivia Benson over 21 seasons and counting. Starting out the show as a detective, Benson has risen in the ranks and is now in charge of the entire unit.

But viewers may be more interested in the fact that the Paley Center special is bringing back many of the show’s former stars, including several fan favorites. Christopher Meloni, who played Olivia’s longtime partner Det. Elliot Stabler before he decided to leave the series, will also appear. Since he is still talked about by fans years later, it’ll be interesting to see what he has to say.

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Also coming back is actress Stephanie March, who was a series regular as Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot on two separate occasions, recurred in three other seasons and guested in two others.

And Raul Esparza, who portrayed Cabot’s successor ADA Rafael Barba, will be back for the first time since he opted to leave SVU midway through season 19.

One notable omission is Philip Winchester, who played ADA Peter Stone in seasons 19-20. He’s the only actor to be a series regular in both the Law & Order and One Chicago franchises, but he wasn’t mentioned in the press release, so he might have been overlooked here too. You’ll have to watch to find out for sure.

But if you like Special Victims Unit, this special seems like it’s bringing back many of the cast who helped the show last this long, and it’ll be very fun to hear from the former stars and learn what they’re doing now, and what they think of the series in retrospect.

Do they miss it? Would they come back in the future? Is there anything they’ll tell us about their characters or life on the set that we didn’t know before?

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There’s just one big question: how exactly are they going to get all these interviews in, during just one hour? Especially with commercials, hopefully that doesn’t mean the interviews end up being super-quick. Yet with all the history this franchise, and particularly this show, has there will be a lot to offer in this special event.

NBC also released a mashup video paying tribute to Olivia Benson last week; you can watch it by playing the video below, then tune into tonight’s Paley Center special at 9:00 p.m. on NBC.

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For the latest SVU season 21 spoilers and news, plus more on all of Dick Wolf’s other series, follow the Dick Wolf category at One Chicago Center.