The peacock network has announced that they’re bringing back Law & Order: Los Angeles after a 19 week hiatus. As you may recall, the new series wasn’t performing very well in the ratings and averaged just a 2.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 8.24 million viewers. As a result, executive producer Dick Wolf and NBC decided to do some retooling.
Cast members Skeet Ulrich, Regina Hall, and Megan Boone are now gone and Alfred Molina’s character, DA Ricardo Morales, is now a detective who works alongside TJ Jaruszalski (Corey Stoll). Terrence Howard remains as DDA Jonah Dekker. In addition, Alana De La Garza will reprise her role as ADA Connie Rubirosa from the original Law & Order which was cancelled last May.
Law & Order: Los Angeles will take over the Mondays at 10pm timeslot from Harry’s Law. The Kathy Bates freshman series is expected to have completed its 13 episode season by that time.
Here’s the press release from NBC…
NBC RE-LAUNCHES “LAW & ORDER: LOS ANGELES” WITH TWO-HOUR PREMIERE ON MONDAY, APRIL 11
Freshman Series Will Return to Regular Time Period (10-11 p.m. ET) on Monday, April 18UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – March 7, 2011 – NBC’s freshman series “Law & Order: Los Angeles” will return to the regular lineup with a two-hour original premiere on Monday, April 11 (9-11 p.m. ET). The crime drama procedural will resume in its regular day and time on Monday, April 18 (10-11 p.m. ET).
The announcement was made by Bob Greenblatt, Chairman, NBC Entertainment.
“We are pleased to welcome ‘Law & Order: Los Angeles’ back to NBC’s regular lineup,” said Greenblatt. “Dick Wolf and his team have made some exciting creative changes and we can’t wait to re-introduce the show to audiences.”
“Law & Order: Los Angeles” follows Detectives Ricardo Morales (Alfred Molina, “An Education,” “The Da Vinci Code,” “Spiderman 2”) and Tomas “TJ” Jaruszalski (Corey Stoll, “Midnight in Paris”) as they pursue cases through the diverse City of Angels. As members of the Los Angeles Police Department’s elite Robbery Homicide Division, Morales, a former Deputy District Attorney, has returned to the police force after he became frustrated with the system, while TJ, who grew up the son of an Oscar-winning Polish cinematographer, knows too well the dark underside that is behind-the-scenes Hollywood.
Protecting the detectives who serve under her is Lieutenant Arleen Gonzales, (Rachel Ticotin) who is driven, focused, and meticulous. She is a 20-year vet with a background in military intelligence who now oversees the Homicide 1 section of Robbery Homicide Division.
Deputy District Attorney Jonah “Joe” Dekker (Terrence Howard, “Crash,” “Hustle & Flow”) is a white knight crusader whose political ambitions often bring him into conflict with his boss. He sincerely believes in fighting the good fight. At the same time, he has never been one to turn down a high-profile case.
At Dekker’s side is Deputy District Attorney Connie Rubirosa (Alana de la Garza, “Law & Order”). Rubirosa served as Executive Assistant District Attorney in New York and she recently located to Los Angeles to help her ailing mother.
Earlier this season, “Law & Order: Los Angeles” averaged a 2.5 rating, 7 share in adults 18-49 and 9.0 million viewers overall, to improve the show’s fourth-quarter time period, Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET, by 56 percent in adults 18-49 versus the prior year (with a 2.5 rating vs. a 1.6) and by 64 percent in total viewers (9.0 million vs. 5.5 million). “Law & Order: Los Angeles” ranked #1 or tied for #1 versus regular programming in that slot with five of eight originals in the fourth quarter.
In addition, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” will broadcast encore episodes on Wednesdays beginning March 23 (9-10 p.m. ET).
“Law & Order: Los Angeles” is a Wolf Films production in association with Universal Media Studios. Dick Wolf is creator and executive producer, Rene Balcer (“Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”), Blake Masters (“Brotherhood,” “Rubicon”), Christopher Misiano (“West Wing,” “ER”) and Peter Jankowski (“Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”) are executive producers.
For “Law & Order: Los Angeles” embeddable clips and full episodes, visit NBC.com’s official show site: http://www.nbc.com/law-and-order-los-angeles/
What do you think? Are you interested in the new version of Law & Order: Los Angeles? Will you tune in?
Image courtesy NBC.
I definitely will not be watching. The only reason i watched was because Skeet was on it. Now that he will be gone, no need to watch. I will watch the first episode when he plays his last day, but not after that.
Will only watch the April 11 episode to see how Skeet Ulrich handles his demise. The only reason I watched the show was because of Ulrich so will not watch after that. I truly enjoyed the original cast because they seemed like real professionals, i.e., calm, well-dressed and competent. Compared to Law & order SVU or Criminal Intent the LOLA crew were not beating up suspects or struggling with a tiresome set of inner demons. Dropping Ulrich and replacing him with “better actors” was tacky.
I also love Skeet, I will watch the first episode, but when Skeet leaves I will leave and also members of my family. You messed up, Skeet was the only reason I watched the show, since you kill him off I hope some smarter station will pick him up and put him where he belongs on TV.
We loved the show as it was. Disappointed in cast changes but certainly will give it a try.
Well of course, they didn’t even give it a chance before changing it. I was mad when they ended the original but decided I liked the new one. Now….not so much. Probably won’t watch.
I LOVED the original cast. They should have been given a bit more time. I will watch the show again..and give it a chance..but dismissing Skeet was a terrible mistake.
I’m frustrated with this decision. The show sucked. So, what do they do? They recreate the series, plan on launching ANOTHER pilot episode for what? What they SHOULD have done was cancel the L&O show that was failing and BRING back the original L&O that everyone loved, so it could have a proper ending that fans were deprived of.
Glad “Connie” is coming to LA….Give Law and Order LA a chance; it does have potential.
The original was getting a little long in the tooth….
I am not sure I am going to like this new line-up. One of the main reasons for watching was because Skeet was in it. What brainiac tossed him off? This show might turn out to be ho-hum.
Skeet was the only reason I liked the show. You made a mistake by cutting him.
I was only looking forward to it’s return because of Skeet, also. If they let him go then they made a mistake. he is a real cutie.
The reshuffle is a terrible idea. A District Attorney that used to be a Detective is now a detective again. That is about as credible as anything the CSI do on a weekly basis with their TV magic computers.
I am dissapointed to see the cast cut as Skeet and Corey had good chemistry as the LAPD detectives. I also liked the rotating DA aspect as well.
I will give the fist episode back a look but I am not confident with the new approach. They should have just cut their losses.
I thought the show had potential and hope it still will, though the fact that you got rid of the characters I liked and switched the ones that already worked make me very skeptical. hopefully its a better job then criminal minds suspect behaviour.
I say, in short, “meh.” I watched this show, and it had potential, I think it may have caught on if they gave it more of a chance, but hey I guess the 16 year olds weren’t watching, or whatever. One thing I don’t like is changing Alfred Molina’s character from a DA to a dectective. His performances as that DA were stellar. What’s the reason for such a move? More car chases and gunplay? Molina isn’t really an action type (but he’s such a great actor who knows?), and that will probably kill it. The good news is Alana… Read more »
I will definitely tune in but WHY did you have to cut Skeet, he was one of the best characters!!!!
Another fave of mine is Chase! And Undercovers! All great shows, but NBC does NOT know what appeals to their audience.