Law & Order: Organized Crime is on to its third showrunner with the exit of Ilene Chaiken

Deadline

The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit spinoff has already had three showrunners before the first anniversary of its premiere. Chaiken, who created The L Word and was showrunner on Empire, was tapped in December 2020 to take over as Organized Crime's showrunner from Matt Olmstead, the show's original showrunner. With Chaiken's exit, she'll be succeeded by Barry O’Brien, who joined the show last October will lead the series for the rest of Season 2. “Ilene did a terrific job launching the series and is a gifted writer,” Law & Order boss Dick Wolf said in a statement. “She leaves the show in good hands and we are incredibly grateful for her contributions.” The showrunner change is not expected to impact production. News of Chaiken's ouster was met with outrage on Twitter, with one fan pointing out that Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni recently told the Today show how they add their own touches to the scripts. "No that's, you know, that's our thing," Meloni said. "There's nobody who knows these characters better than she and I. With all due respect to the writers, whatever you see is really she and I figuring it out — figuring out what the exact words are or the exact emotions are."