Law & Order: Special Victims Unit poster

Where to watch

Each link opens a search on that service. Checked 13 October 2026.

Streaming data from JustWatch

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

1999 · TV Show · 60 min episodes · 28 seasons
B

MEANRANK

76/100

Averaged across 8 ratings · 688.6K votes

Every rating

IMDb’s figure comes from IMDb’s own data file, which we re-read about once a month.

Google: Google retired the star ratings it used to show in search results, so this one no longer updates. More on where the numbers come from →

51–84 out of 100

Split

Lowest is Criticker on 51, highest is Rotten Tomatoes viewers on 84.

See the TV shows the platforms disagree about most →
Compare

Follows the New York City Police Department's (NYPD) Special Victims Unit (SVU), a specially trained squad of detectives who investigates sex crimes including rape, child sexual abuse, human trafficking and domestic violence.

Details

Created by
Dick Wolf
Based on
Law & Order
Released
20 September 1999
Country
United States
Language
English
Episode length
60 min
Rated
TV-14
Episodes
598 across 28 seasons
Awards
45 wins, 164 nominations

This title elsewhere

Mariska Hargitay

Mariska Hargitay

Olivia Benson

Ice-T

Ice-T

Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola

Dann Florek

Dann Florek

Donald Cragen

Richard Belzer

Richard Belzer

John Munch

Kelli Giddish

Kelli Giddish

Kara Bawson / Amanda Rollins

Christopher Meloni

Christopher Meloni

Elliot Stabler

Peter Scanavino

Peter Scanavino

Dominick 'Sonny' Carisi Jr. / Johnny Dubcek

BD Wong

BD Wong

George Huang

Awards & nominations

See all 209 →

6 major awards won · 45 wins from 209 nominations across 31 ceremonies

Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards 2009 Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Ellen Burstyn (for "Swing") Winner
Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards 2008 Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Cynthia Nixon (for "Alternate") Winner
Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards 2007 Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Leslie Caron (for "Recall") Winner
Primetime Emmy Awards 2006 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Mariska Hargitay (for "911") Winner
Golden Globe Awards 2005 Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama Mariska Hargitay Winner
Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards 2005 Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series Amanda Plummer (for "Weak") Winner
Primetime Emmy Awards 2011 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Mariska Hargitay (for "Rescue") Nominee
Primetime Emmy Awards 2010 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Mariska Hargitay (for "Perverted") Nominee
Show all 209 awards across 31 ceremonies

Awards from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.