USA still has room for 'Criminal Intent'

Reports of the death of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" that cropped up in recent weeks were premature.

The show will return for its eighth season this fall on the USA Network — albeit a somewhat abbreviated season. Instead of the normal 22-episode order, "Criminal Intent" will produce 16 episodes.

While both "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" remain on NBC (for their 19th and 10th seasons, respectively), "Criminal Intent" will continue as a cable series for its second season (following six years on NBC).

It's all part of the same media conglomerate — both USA and NBC are subsidiaries of NBC Universal. And the "Law & Order" series are produced by Universal Media Studios, another part of the company.

As was the case this season, episodes of "Criminal Intent" will probably air on NBC after they've been on USA. That's a little bit funny because the reason the show switched from NBC to USA was that the broadcast network didn't have room for it.

The way things have been going at NBC for the past few years, it would have hardly seemed that the network could afford to let go of even a moderate hit.

Like so many shows this season, "Criminal Intent's" run was interrupted by the writers' strike. The last new episode aired back on Dec. 13; the next new episode airs Sunday, June 8, on USA.

(That's part of Season 7, not Season 8.)

Dick Wolf, the executive producer/creator/godfather of all things "Law & Order," issued a statement expressing his belief that "Criminal Intent" will continue to thrive on USA "for years to come."

Given the track record of the three shows in the franchise, that would hardly be a surprise.

FOR THE SECOND YEAR in a row, "Law & Order" is on NBC's schedule, but it's not on NBC's fall schedule. Once again, the show is scheduled to return in January as a midseason replacement.

Not that that bothers Wolf in the least.

"Are you kidding?" he said. "We're guaranteed 22 episodes in a row (without repeats) and we're up against 60 percent repeats? That's like (shooting) fish in a barrel."

And, with the 19th season on the way, he's already looking ahead to the 20th. And the, um, 40th?

Wolf said it is "absolutely" still his dream to knock off "Gunsmoke" as the longest-running drama in TV history.