Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

1999

Dick Wolf's first Law & Order spinoff follows the detectives of a Manhattan squad that handles sex crimes and crimes against children, with Mariska Hargitay's Olivia Benson rising from detective to captain across the run. Ice-T has played Fin Tutuola since season two, and Christopher Meloni's Elliot Stabler anchored the first twelve seasons before returning in the spinoff Organized Crime. Renewed for a twenty-eighth season in 2026, it is the longest-running live-action primetime series in U.S. history, and Hargitay's Benson is the longest-running character.