Nbc Renewals Lock In Chicago and Law & Order Franchises as 'Brilliant Minds' Is Pulled
NBC is beginning to firm up its primetime lineup with moves that anchor its veteran Dick Wolf franchises and two returning comedies, while leaving two sophomore dramas precariously placed. The nbc renewals underway matter because they reflect both a return to scripted investment—an order of eight pilots—and the continued use of budget trimming to preserve long-running series.
Nbc Renewals for Wolf Entertainment's Chicago and Law & Order series
Dick Wolf’s five NBC series—Chicago Fire, Chicago P. D., Chicago Med, Law & Order: SVU and the Law & Order revival—are all positioned for pickup for the upcoming season. One Chicago and Law & Order: SVU remain consistent performers on NBC’s linear schedule and on Peacock, and Law & Order itself has rebounded after coming off its strongest showing on Peacock last season and delivering a solid 2025-26 season to date in linear ratings.
Those strengths, and the franchise loyalty of Chicago viewers, have created what industry executives view as a return to stability for the network after last year’s shakeup. The Chicago block benefits from built-in fan bases and cross-promotion within the One Chicago framework, while SVU continues to anchor Thursday night.
2025 purge, two new comedies and an eight-pilot order
Last year’s primetime reshuffle saw NBC clear six scripted series ahead of the NBA’s arrival to the network’s primetime last fall: Found, The Irrational, Grosse Pointe Garden Society, Suits L. A., Night Court and Lopez vs. Lopez were canceled. For 2025-26 the network added two new comedies with shorter orders—Stumble and The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins—and no new dramas.
A year on, the network has shifted away from contraction: NBC has placed orders for eight pilots, five dramas and three comedies, and it kicked off the cycle with early renewals for the comedies Happy’s Place and St. Denis Medical, both picked up for third seasons earlier this month.
Brilliant Minds pulled; Warner Bros. TV and the six remaining episodes
Brilliant Minds, produced by Warner Bros. TV, has been removed from NBC’s schedule to make room for two-hour episodes of The Voice on Monday, a move that underscores how precarious the sophomore drama’s status has become. It is NBC’s lowest-rated drama on linear television and posted the steepest double-digit year-to-year declines despite holding the same post-Voice Monday time slot as last season. The series has six remaining episodes that are likely to air after NBC has made the bulk of its renewal decisions for 2026-27.
That scheduling decision has directly placed Brilliant Minds on the bubble: being pulled to accommodate extended reality programming indicates the network is prioritizing higher-rated content in the slot and leaves the Warner Bros. TV drama’s renewal prospects uncertain.
The Hunting Party, Melissa Roxburgh and a surprise breakout
The Hunting Party sits just above Brilliant Minds as the second-lowest rated NBC drama on linear, but its trajectory is different. The crime procedural starring Melissa Roxburgh was pushed to midseason last summer while the medical drama starring Zachary Quinto remained on the fall schedule, a split that raised questions about The Hunting Party’s future. Since then it has been steady on NBC and has charted on Peacock, and the thriller has suddenly become a surprise breakout that keeps it in contention rather than out of the running.
Budget trims, Wolf Entertainment, Universal Television and 2023 minimum-guarantee changes
Any renewals for the veteran Wolf series are expected to come with budget trims. Wolf Entertainment, which produces the Chicago and Law & Order series with Universal Television, introduced reductions to minimum guarantees in 2023 as a cost-saving measure. That practice reduces guaranteed episode counts for cast members—especially long-tenured actors—and has been adopted by other veteran broadcast series. The number of episodes actors are guaranteed to appear in has crept down every year, and cast departures have become a recurring reality as shows adjust to new budget targets to secure annual renewals.
The cause-and-effect is straightforward: networks and studios are trimming contracts to lower per-episode costs, which in turn changes casting patterns and forces legacy series to recalibrate production economics to remain viable. What makes this notable is how consistently those measures have spread across franchises, allowing flagship titles to be renewed while reshaping the seasons they deliver.
Overall, the nbc renewals picture combines reaffirmations for established properties, a fresh slate of pilots, and hard choices for newer dramas—moves designed to stabilize the schedule while managing costs ahead of final renewal decisions for 2026-27.
