Mariska Hargitay was in the crowd Monday at NBC’s annual upfront presentation at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, where the network laid out a slate that keeps her on board for another run of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. said the long-running drama will head into its 28th season in the fall.
The presentation mixed returning staples, new bets and a few celebrity turns. Tina Fey took the stage to promote NBC’s plans for a 100th anniversary tribute show on Dec. 10, then introduced Jane Krakowski, who sang as her 30 Rock character Jenna in a nod to the network’s comedy history. Elsewhere on the lineup, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins is set to return in November, while Tea Leoni and Tim Daly are teaming up for a new series called Newlyweds.
NBC describes Newlyweds as a later-in-life love story about a free-spirited woman and a buttoned-up professor who marry impetuously after a whirlwind courtship. Jamie Lee Curtis is attached as both a guest star and producer. The project gives Leoni and Daly another chance to play off each other after years in television, and it arrives as NBC keeps leaning on familiar names to anchor its schedule.
The upfront also put several of the network’s news and entertainment faces on display. Craig Melvin, Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager and Al Roker were all there, and Guthrie said she will host a new game show called Wordle, produced by Jimmy Fallon and inspired by the digital game. Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers’ La Culturistas Culture Awards will air on Bravo on June 17, while Line of Fire, starring Peter Krause and Hope Davis and co-executive produced by Jenna Bush Hager, is also in the mix.
On the unscripted side, Love Island USA is set to premiere on Peacock on June 2, and Anna Pigeon will debut on USA on Aug. 7. The schedule shows a company trying to cover every corner of its audience at once: legacy franchises, new talk of nostalgia, celebrity-led comedies and reality staples that can be used as traffic drivers through the summer and into fall.
The real test is whether that mix can hold together in a crowded TV season. NBC is banking on the draw of recognizable brands and familiar faces, from Hargitay to Fey, while also trying to make room for fresh titles that need to break through fast. For Hargitay, the message was plain enough in a room full of executives and stars: SVU is not winding down yet. It is going back to work in the fall, and NBC is still treating it like one of the anchors of the whole lineup.
