Behind-the-Scenes Drama Just Led to Law & Order S23 Losing A Key Actor

Summary

• Sources report that the upcoming season will lose a key cast member, Jeffrey Donovan.
• The reason seems to be creative differences and the character may be recast.
• Fewer characters, more writing opportunities as Season 23 will consist of 13 episodes.

The main brainchild of Dick Wolf, later merged with his One Chicago universe, Law & Order saw the light of day an astonishing 33 years ago, and even with the 12-year hiatus, the series is one of the longest-running on television. In that time, fans of the police procedural have seen more than a few personnel changes as these and other characters have been written out of the script or their actors have left the project.

However, if the last few seasons before the revival were not lacking in detectives and other police staff, starting with Season 21, released in February 2022, 27th Precinct felt much more empty, as the plot focused on only a few new detectives and, of course, the legendary District Attorney Jack McCoy, played by Sam Waterston.

The revived series proved its viability by being warmly embraced by fans, and now, after the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the show is back in production. Only the police station is shrinking again as one of the new main characters leaves the L&O series due to some behind-the-scenes issues.

The Core Cast Member Will Not Appear in the New Season

Last week, TV Line reported that Season 23 will not feature one of the core detectives introduced in the twenty-first season revival. We're talking about junior detective (later promoted to senior detective) Frank Cosgrove, played by Jeffrey Donovan.

In the two new seasons available, Cosgrove proved to be an incredibly layered and ambiguous character: on the one hand, he is driven by a strong inner sense of justice, while on the other, his old-school methods and problematic views were at times overly aggressive, making Cosgrove a controversial yet complex character.

The character was last seen in the final episode of Season 22 with his partner Jalen Shaw (Mehcad Brooks), investigating the assassination of a U.S. senator.

NBC has not reached out to reporters about the circumstances, but sources say Donovan is leaving the show for 'creative reasons.' It is unknown whether the actor left because his vision of the character did not match that of the writers, or because they no longer saw him as the driving force of the plot. However, there was clearly some drama going on behind the scenes that forced the actor to leave the project. Only time will tell if the character will one day return to the show, but apparently he is not written off and there is now an active search for a replacement.

The 27th Precinct Continues to Lose Detectives

But as we have already mentioned, such cast changes are nothing new for Law & Order. It's already happened with the revival itself, as the only other veteran of the series besides Sam Waterston, who appeared in Season 18, Anthony Anderson, left the show in Season 21 after completing his one-year contract. The actor played Detective Kevin Bernard, who was Frank Cosgrove's first partner. Ultimately, if Cosgrove still doesn't show up in the new season, the 27th Precinct will be even more deserted.

Season 23 Will Be Shorter Than Usual

In addition to the drama on the set, the upcoming season will also feel the effects of the recent Hollywood double strikes. In order to fit the empty schedule and get the show on the air as soon as possible, NBC, like many other networks, decided to cut the new season to just 13 episodes. The lowest number of episodes in the show's history was only in the case of Season 21, when NBC was just getting its feet wet with the once-popular show. The news is not pleasant, of course, but it will save budgets and, with production already in full swing, allow new episodes to be released in the spring.

So for the release of Season 23, we should expect it in early 2024.

Source: TV Line.