Following lukewarm ratings for some NBC prime time offerings, executives at the network have decided to expand on the Law & Order franchise for the remainder of this Fall season and into 2011.
Over the last three years, the original Law & Order series had spawned "Law & Order, Special Victims Unit", "Law & Order Criminal Intent", and "Law & Order Los Angeles". The franchise also expanded to Britain with "Law & Order U.K.", but that doesn't impact NBC's prime time schedule.
"Clearly we have a winning theme with the L&O franchise here", says Assistant Scheduling Director, Marty Stickles. "We simply need to regionalize our Law & Order series to other cities, and feature other aspects to law enforcement". Indeed, the pilot episodes for the new shows were already "in the can", waiting for the possible green light at some point in the season.
Rounding out the weekly lineup for NBC, we will soon see, "Law & Order: Fargo", "Law & Order: Peoria", "Law & Order: Mall Security", "Law & Order: Truancy", "Law & Order: Atlanta Housewives", and "Law & Order: Petty Theft". When asked about the Atlanta Housewives show specifically, Stickles confirmed that NBC was looking to get in on the reality drama action with the "Real Housewives of Atlanta" cable series. "Have you seen that show? They need a full time police presence during any, and I mean any filming. Those beotches are crazy".
