After 24 seasons, Dick Wolf’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit still brings in eyeballs.
The procedural crime drama, which premiered in 1999, came in No. 3 for live, linear watch-time with a 1.06% viewership share across all dayparts from Jan. 1 through June 30, 2023, according to data from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio. SVU was behind only the NBA (1.83%) and NFL (1.72%), making the Mariska Hargitay- and Ice-T-starring series the top scripted program in the first half of the year. The series also nabbed the No. 3 spot when looking at weekends only with 1.59% viewership share, again behind the NFL and NBA.
The Dick Wolf universe — which includes stalwarts SVU, original crime procedural Law & Order and spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime as well as Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, FBI and FBI: International — had three of the top 25 shows across all dayparts.
On a weekly basis for all dayparts in H1, SVU was among the top five most-watched programs weekly for every week except two. The week of Feb. 6-12, thanks to the Super Bowl, basketball and PGA Golf, SVU came in at No. 6. For the week of March 6-12, basketball, the Players Championship and the Oscars pushed SVU to No. 7.
SVU’s domination didn’t stop there. On USA Network alone, airings accounted for nearly half (44.76%) of all minutes watched on the network in the first half of 2023.
Looking at primetime minutes watched, however, the top Dick Wolf show wasn’t SVU but rather Chicago Fire. Fire ranked No. 8, capturing 1.02% of primetime minutes watched. SVU came in as the third most-watched show from Wolf at No. 15 with 0.84%. Wolf’s FBI edged out SVU in primetime at 0.91% for the No. 13 spot. In all, the Wolf-verse had five of the top 25 primetime shows.
Wolf series also performed on the ad side. According to iSpot, new episodes and reruns of Dick Wolf shows generated 123.2 billion national linear household TV ad impressions across all dayparts from Jan. 1 through June 30, 2023.
SVU was the top Dick Wolf show for national TV ad impressions with 43.3 billion. Its closest Wolf sibling was Chicago Fire with 21.8 billion impressions.
For all programs, dayparts and episode types including sports, SVU came in at a familiar No. 3 for impressions share of voice (1.34%) in H1 2023. No. 1 and No. 2? You probably guessed it: NBA with 2.08% and NFL with 1.39%.
When narrowed down to new episodes and reruns in primetime only, SVU was the top Dick Wolf show again for national linear TV ad impressions (9.8 billion), followed by Chicago Fire (8.1 billion) and FBI (7.6 billion). If sports are included across primetime, SVU still makes the cut, ranking fifth with an impressions SOV of 1.22%.
Looking at only Dick Wolf shows again, the brands with the most national TV ad impressions were Domino’s (1.9 billion), Progressive (1.2 billion), Liberty Mutual (883.9 million), Burger King (878.8 million) and Kohl’s (829.8 million). Network-wise, Ion (42 billion impressions), USA (32.9 billion), NBC (20.1 billion), CBS (11.5 billion) and WE tv (5 billion) had the most impressions across all Dick Wolf shows.
With the ongoing writers and actors strikes, syndicated shows and reruns might be pulling double-duty come fall. So expect to see shows with deep libraries like the Wolf-verse’s SVU and Law & Order continue to do well in the second half of 2023.
