Warren Leight is returning to SVU. The veteran producer, who served as showrunner for seasons thirteen through seventeen, is returning to serve as the showrunner for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’s recently ordered record-breaking twenty-first season. The news was first reported by Deadline.
Leight replaces current Law & Order: Special Victims Unit showrunner Michael Chernuchin, who is moving to Dick Wolf’s CBS series FBI as an executive producer for its second season. Rick Eid will continue to serve as showrunner on FBI and Chicago PD. Derek Haas remains showrunner on Chicago Fire. Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider are the Chicago Med showrunners.
Both Leight and Chernuchin are Law & Order veterans. In addition to SVU, Leight was also showrunner on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and co-created newest franchise entry Law & Order: Hate Crimes; while Chernuchin showran Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Chicago Justice. It was after Justice was cancelled in 2017 that he moved over to Special Victims Unit.
“Nooch has been in the Wolf family for three decades, beginning with the early days of Law & Order, Wolf said. “He is one of the most consistent and versatile writers I have had the pleasure of working with over the years, and his voice will be an integral part of our second season of FBI”, Dick Wolf said. “We have a ‘murderers’ row’ of writers and showrunners on our shows. What they do on a daily and weekly basis is mind-boggling. I’m thrilled that Warren is returning for the historic 21st season of SVU, and I can’t thank Rick, Derek, Diane, Andy and Nooch enough for turning out smart, compelling and popular television every week.”
