Nbc Renewals: Status Report on Chicago, Law & Order and More
nbc renewals are shaping up around established franchises and a small group of newer dramas. The network, which cleared six scripted series in 2025, has moved from contraction into a period of measured replenishment and early pick-ups.
2025 Purge and Cancellations
Last year’s purge saw six scripted series canceled ahead of the NBA’s arrival to the network’s primetime last fall. The canceled dramas were Found, The Irrational, Grosse Pointe Garden Society and Suits L. A.; the canceled comedies were Night Court and Lopez vs. Lopez.
New Comedies and Pilots
Following that shake-up, the network added two new comedy series with shorter orders for 2025-26: Stumble and The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins. No new dramas were added for 2025-26. A year later, the network has ordered eight pilots: five dramas and three comedies, a move that signals it is not in scripted contraction mode anymore.
Nbc Renewals: Wolf Franchises
Dick Wolf’s five NBC series — Chicago Fire, Chicago P. D., Chicago Med, Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order — all look poised for renewal. One Chicago and Law & Order: SVU have never been in doubt, remaining consistently strong across linear on the network and streaming on Peacock. The revival of the mothership Law & Order had been lagging behind the other four in the ratings and had become a cast revolving door, but coming off its strongest showing on Peacock last season, Law & Order has largely caught up with the rest of the Wolf Entertainment pack in linear, posting a solid 2025-26 season to date that has made the case for renewal.
Early Comedy Pickups
The network kicked off its cycle with early renewals for comedies Happy’s Place and St. Denis Medical; both were picked up for third seasons earlier this month.
Budget Trims and Contract Changes
Any pickups are expected to come with budget trims. Wolf Entertainment, which produces the Chicago and Law & Order series with Universal Television, introduced minimum guarantees reductions in 2023 as a cost-saving measure. Those reductions mean cast members — especially long-tenured ones — do not appear in every episode. That practice has been adopted by other veteran series, with the number of episodes actors are guaranteed to appear in creeping down every year. Cast departures have become part of the reality for long-running broadcast shows as they try to meet new budget targets to secure annual renewals.
Brilliant Minds and The Hunting Party
Beyond the Wolf five, NBC’s current drama slate includes two sophomores: The Hunting Party and Brilliant Minds. Both are on the bubble, with The Hunting Party considered the stronger of the two. That represents a shift from last summer, when the network opted to keep the medical drama starring Zachary Quinto on the fall schedule while pushing the crime procedural starring Melissa Roxburgh to midseason, a move that raised questions about the latter’s future.
It is now Brilliant Minds whose future is in serious doubt. Brilliant Minds is the network’s lowest rated drama series on linear and it has posted the steepest double-digit year-to-year declines despite having the same post-Voice Monday time slot as last season. In another sign of trouble, the Warner Bros. TV-produced series was recently pulled from the schedule to make room for two-hour Voice episodes on Monday. The remaining six episodes of Brilliant Minds are likely to air after the network has made the bulk of its renewal decisions for 2026-27.
The Hunting Party sits just above Brilliant Minds as the second lowest rated drama on linear. The Hunting Party has been stable on the network and has charted on Peacock, which keeps it in contention but not off the bubble. The thriller has suddenly become a surprise breakout.
As the network finalizes its slate, the interplay of ratings, streaming performance and new-budget realities will determine which series survive into the 2026-27 season.
