Law & Order Put $79 Million Into NYC Economy Each Year

Photograph of 2004 Law & Order wardrobe by Jen Chung/Gothamist

NBC's decision to cancel Law & Order doesn't just mean that we'll no longer get to guess which headlines were ripped (Hookergate! The Taconic Wrong Way Crash! Hipster Grifter!) on the latest episode, it also means that $79 million will not go towards NYC businesses, actors, and interests. That's the amount that NYC Film, Theater and Broadcasting Commissioner Katharine Oliver estimates the productions spends annually—and she also told the NY Times that the show employs about 4,000 people, each year, including one-day parts. Oliver said Law & Order producer-mastermind Dick Wolf "really proved that New York City is an affordable place to shoot."

It would be impossible to overstate the show's importance to NYC actors. Besides featuring a veritable who's who of Broadway and off-Broadway actors or actors before they were stars (remember Edie Falco as the public defender? Philip Seymour Hoffman? Lauren Graham? William H. Macy? Jennifer Garner?), there are the unknown working actors. Actors could get $300-800 for small roles, while bigger roles could earn them $5,000-6,000. Denis O'Hare, the Tony-winning actor who was on the show four times (a repeat offender, if you will), told the Daily News, "It was good money. At times, it saved my life. I made more in a two-week shoot on 'Law & Order' than in an eight-week run of an Off-Broadway show. Plus, the scripts were great, and the actors were amazing."

However, one executive on the show told the Times, "There’s no bigger ‘Law & Order’ junkie than I am, but we’ve been in almost every Upper East Side apartment in New York and explored all those stories."

Mayor Bloomberg (yes, he's been on the show) issued a statement, "We’re grateful to Dick Wolf for choosing New York City as its location for all of these years, and for helping showcase the City’s depth and versatility as a setting and all of the advantages of filming here," (full statement below), and the Post even has an editorial about the show, blaming its demise on "when its producers started burdening it with vacuous left-wing political themes") but admitting, "Still, for most of its run, 'Law & Order' was for much of the country, the embodiment of a gritty yet resolute New York City. So long."

Mayor Bloomberg's statement about Law & Order's cancellation: "Over the last 20 years, Law & Order became a New York City institution. It began filming in the City at a time when few series did, and it helped pave the way for the more than 150 television shows based here today, including the Law & Order spinoff Special Victims Unit, which will continue. Law & Order not only broke the record for New York City’s longest-running primetime series, it set the record for the longest-running crime series in the nation, collecting numerous Emmy awards along the way. It also helped launch the careers of thousands of talented actors and featured many memorable performances - although my cameos are not among them. We’re grateful to Dick Wolf for choosing New York City as its location for all of these years, and for helping showcase the City’s depth and versatility as a setting and all of the advantages of filming here.”

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on May 15, 2010 6:14 PM

Comments [rss]

Mr Mel

The reason that Saturday Night Live isn't going down the tubes, is that it makes a lot of money for NBC. Evidently L&O is not bringing in enough scratch to make it worthwhile.

Paris55

I started watching L&O from the very beginning - 1990. Incredible series to learn about the criminal and justice system and great entertainment. L&O had a loyal following on TNT since NBC constantly moved around the time slots. It is not suprising that NBC has made a lot of mistakes in their TV shows in the last two years. Law and Order is a staple. Let Dick Wolf have the one more year he was promised.

No Brain Stem

how will I now learn about the law?

youngpro

That's easy. Just go to Fordham, They'll be happy to talk to you! :)

Mermaid Fornicator

i love you two!!

Mordicai

79 million is a lot...but it isn't like this is THE LAST TELEVISION SHOW EVER. Settle down!

MrManhattan

One less fake TV production taking over real New York streets?

Is this a bad thing?

inoyourider

This sucks

Another nail in the coffin of NYC production.

NlGGAZ

that's a totally overinflated estimate. A episode of L and O costs ~1 million dollars to produce. since there are only 22 episodes in a season you can deduce that a show's budget is ~24 million a year. they don't just use all that money on production values but the majority of it is in salaries. I'd say they probably put around 10 million a year into the NYC economy.

longacre

They might be counting the ads sold for the show since NBC is in New York.

Karen

I think there's a facebook site for protests...I am so pissed off at NBC! If CBS can rescue Medium, why can't another network grab L&O and keep it going! Maybe the show could move to USA or TNT?

xinvincible21

How do we start a protest to the cancellation of law and order?

F1Mikal

Lame idea to protest.

Try something more crazy?

Like how about getting 79 million people to donate ONE dollar to cover the costs for one more year...

Or get 16 million people to donate 5IVE dollars?

That would be cool.

Set up an account for the money to go to; put the account in Bloomberg's name cuz he ain't gonna steal a pittance 79 million dollars.

Anybody can do a protest.

My 2P

longacre

Just don't watch anything on NBC. There's nothing good anyway aside from 30 Rock.

gawkthis

now that NBC has canceled it, Wolf can't shop it to another network, for example ABC? They could use something with a proven following to replace Lost as it ends this season. It's not like it has to end just because the programmers at NBC are shallow and insensitive to NYC.

longacre

I read something that he might pitch it to TNT, but not sure how feasible that is.

grandeur

TNT brought on SOUTHLAND after NBC cancelled it, seems like getting L&O would be a shoe in.

dev

NBC probably owns the franchise, with SVU and CI.

jchez

The show used to be good but it started hemorrhaging viewers when it turned every "ripped form the headlines" story into a left wing rant and making almost every perpetrator into a rich white guy. They even turned the story of the Harlem shop owner who killed the store robbers into a calculating murderer, not a hero.

Also, no way I'm watching the new show. "LOLA", are you kidding me?