The 2025 TV schedule has a deal with for followers of Dick Wolf’s nine-show TV universe, with a two-part primetime crossover occasion between Regulation & Order Season 24 and Regulation & Order: SVU Season 26. With greater than two years because the final time each exhibits had been introduced collectively for a multi-parter, the crossover has been a very long time coming. It additionally teamed Reid Scott’s Detective Vincent Riley up with Mariska Hargitay’s iconic Captain Olivia Benson for the primary time, and he was overflowing with compliments for her when he spoke with CinemaBlend.
I not too long ago spoke with Reid Scott about Riley “getting triggered” in a giant episode for his character, which is out there streaming with a Peacock subscription now. He additionally shared why he is a fan of Regulation & Order embracing “unsatisfying” endings in Season 24, however nothing sounds unsatisfying concerning the crossover on April 17, based mostly on how he described it. He shared:
I beloved it. I used to be slightly nervous as a result of I hadn’t been a part of a crossover but, and it is so distinctive to Regulation & Order and the Dick Wolf universe. I used to be like, ‘Oh, man, what’s it should be wish to have them over to our world for a minute?’ And I had a lot enjoyable doing that. Not solely does it kind of refresh and reinvigorate you since you’re enjoying with all these new individuals, however I really like the story that it permits us to play with. It is an enormous case, and it is an enormous episode.
Mariska Hargitay appeared on Regulation & Order means again in early Season 24, however that was extra like a cameo than Benson correctly crossing over as a part of the case from begin to end. That is not going to be the case this time round. With the episodes referred to as “Play With Hearth Half 1” and “Play With Hearth Half 2,” Benson shall be introduced into the Regulation & Order combine after a mysterious cellphone name and a brutal homicide.
True to type, the SVU half of the crossover incorporates sexually-based offenses. All in all, it feels like a grim pair of episodes, however Reid Scott had a number of enjoyable whereas filming it. He went on:
I will fan out for a second – it was simply enjoyable to hold with Mariska. She is an absolute journey, and she or he and I had a lot enjoyable, cracking one another up between takes. She’s simply such a ball of power that I used to be actually impressed. I used to be like, ‘Wow. That is the way you get to be somebody like her.’ She brings this unbelievable work ethic, this unbelievable power. She actually is a pacesetter. She’s a quarterback, and I hope to get to do extra of the [crossovers]. I hope they mortgage me out to the SVU world one in every of lately, as a result of it might be enjoyable to go over there. But it surely was an amazing mash up and simply actually distinctive, actually distinctive. I beloved it.
It is at all times nice to listen to new takes on working with Mariska Hargitay, as a result of the consensus appears to be that it is at all times an amazing expertise. Ryan Buggle, who performs Benson’s son on SVU, informed CinemaBlend that his “favourite factor” he discovered from Hargitay is to at all times “act along with your coronary heart and solely act since you love performing.” Season 26 visitor star Donna Lynne Champlin, whose episode included a twist on the standard SVU format, informed me that the main girl is “so clearly beloved and revered on that set.”
Ice-T, who’s Mariska Hargitay’s longest-running co-star by this level, shared that he thinks “the present will keep on so long as Mariska needs to do” it and “it is her present.” Christopher Meloni even raved about figuring out she was an amazing actress from the very starting, telling Kelly Clarkson on The Kelly Clarkson Present that he knew he was “nearly as good as gold” to be forged on SVU as quickly as he was paired with Hargitay.
And people are simply the individuals who have recognized her in individual! Hargitay herself shared that celebrities at all times need to play useless our bodies to be on SVU, and there is a motive why she had Olympians freaking out in Paris and Taylor Swift named one in every of her cats “Olivia” in a nod to the TV character.
Suffice it to say that Reid Scott is in good firm in his reward of the main girl. Whereas he did not need to spoil all of the twists and turns, he went on to share one plot level that brings Riley and Benson collectively:
The episode itself is improbable. It covers a number of floor. I do not need to give too many spoilers on it, however I’ll say that there was one second the place Mariska and I are simply discovering the physique, as a result of each episode has a physique, and this specific physique is not like something that I had seen in my two years right here at Regulation and Order. It was actually one thing, and I believe it should make for some of the cinematic episodes we have ever had. It simply seems stunning, and it is a actually essential story. It is a actually essential case.
The wait is almost over to see the Regulation & Order/SVU crossover, however I believe it is already a protected guess that Riley and Benson aren’t going to be cracking one another up fairly like Reid Scott and Mariska Hargitay had been between scenes. For now, take a look at the promo for the two-parter:
Watch On
Tune in to NBC on Thursday, April 17 beginning at 8 p.m. ET for the doubleheader of Dick Wolf TV motion with Regulation & Order and SVU crossing over. The Season 5 premiere of Regulation & Order: Organized Crime will air in its outdated 10 p.m. ET time slot that night time as properly, though the remainder of the ten-episode fifth season will stream solely on Peacock.