Why NBC Canceled The Star-Studded Law & Order: LA After One Season

Dick Wolf’s “Law & Order” franchise long ago reached “empire” status. The original murder mystery series debuted in 1990, and ran strong for twenty straight seasons, finally drawing to a close in 2010. Not satisfied with 20 years, Wolf resurrected the series in 2022, and it’s been running steadily ever since. The show’s first spin-off, 1999’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” which centered on cases of sexual assault, proved to be even more popular than the original, running for (as of this writing) 26 seasons. From 2001 to 2011, the two big hits were joined by the more psychologically complex “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” a series that told audiences whodunnit from the start, and it, too, was a notable success. Most recently, the L&O franchise was joined by four successful seasons of “Law & Order: Organized Crime.” 

But not everything in Wolf’s universe was a success. Indeed, two of the shows in the franchise only lasted one season each, neither successful enough to become a tentpole. “Law & Order: Trial By Jury,” a more lawyer-centric show, only lasted 13 episodes from 2004 to 2005, and, notable for this article, the location-transposed “Law & Order: LA” only ran 22 episodes before getting the axe. These shows weren’t bad, mind you, but they weren’t striking enough to supplant their forebears. 

There was every reason to believe that “Law & Order: LA” would work. It was very Los Angeles-centric, and even had the wherewithal to be geographically accurate. The episodes are all named after neighborhoods around the Southland, and the show was filmed slightly differently than all its New York counterparts. It’s better than “Law & Order: True Crime,” anyway — check out our rankings of every “Law & Order” show here. 

But after only one season, the plug was pulled. It seems that the show simply wasn’t attracting a large enough audience quickly enough.

The cast of “LOLA” was impressive (even if they didn’t make our ranking of the 15 best “Law & Order” characters). The central cops were played by Skeet Ulrich and Corey Stoll, and they developed a good chemistry together. Alfred Molina later played the chief detective, and his former job as a prosecuting attorney gave him special insights into criminal activity. The attorneys from the “Order” half of the show were played Alana de la Garza and Terrance Howard, having taken over for Regina Hall and Megan Boone. They played the typical stalwart Dick Wolf-style lawyers very well. Structurally, “LOLA” mirrored the original “Law & Order” shows perfectly, sticking with the ultra-reliable five-act structure that had been codified decades before. Tonally, however, it was different, just because the vibe of Los Angeles is more laidback than New York. 

“LOLA” ran in a block with “Criminal Intent” for the 2010/2011 season, and it just didn’t find its audience. Perhaps the New York-ness was vital to the world’s many L&O fans. A 2011 post-mortem in Deadline interviewed NBC chair Robert Greenblatt, and he said that “LOLA” was canceled because it simply wasn’t fetching high-enough numbers. “We tried,” he said, “but we didn’t have the time to bring it back if it isn’t going to show signs of growth.” 

Later, on a podcast called “The Futon Critic,” Greenblatt confessed that “LOLA” was actually doing okay in the ratings, but that it was a hectic, rushed production, and that it wasn’t the supra-hit he clearly wanted. He said: 

“‘Law & Order: LA,’ I think we just didn’t get it off the ground right. It was put on the schedule without a pilot last fall before I arrived. There was all kinds of chaos going on: the show did well, then it was taken off. In a different scenario that might have worked better but we just thought it wasn’t a strong enough player to continue into next season.”

It should also be noted that the show underwent a major creative overhaul partway through, adding to the chaos.

The “major overhauls” on “Law & Order: LA” were essentially a recasting. Although only on the air for 22 episodes, there were multiple personnel changes. It was the Menudo of “Law & Order.” The series started with Stoll and Ulrich as the main cops, but Ulrich was jettisoned in favor of Molina. Terrence Howard was brought in partway as well. Wanda de Jesus originally played the tough-as-nails police chief Arleen Gonzalez in the pilot, but Rachel Ticotin replaced her. Regina Hall and Megan Boone, as mentioned, played the show’s central lawyer characters, but were only part of the top half of the show. Howard and de la Garza were their replacements. (De la Garza, it should be noted, was a transplant character from the 17th through the 20th season of the original series.)

It certainly didn’t help “LOLA” that it took a prolonged hiatus while all this recasting rigmarole was going on. The show’s first eight episodes aired weekly from September 29 through December 1, 2010, and then took four months off, not returning until April 11, 2011. Because the cast was now totally different, and the break caused the show’s dramatic momentum to break, it felt like an entirely new show. Any sense of continuity was lost, and even interested viewers suddenly had to re-commit. The writing never suffered, the character work was strong, and the acting was spot-on (Stoll is a highlight, and, come on, his M.O.D.O.K. wasn’t bad in “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania”), but no one was paying attention. 

Despite respectable-enough ratings, the show was axed, becoming the third “Law & Order” series canceled at that point. The franchise has continued apace, but it’s a pity the L.A. version never offered a proper challenge to all those hoity-toity New Yorkers.