Last night’s ratings were a boon for “Law & Order SVU” even as showrunner and exec producer Warren Leight announced his exit.
The episode scored 4.9 million viewers, making it among the top 3 standalone episodes of the entire 2021-22 season.
On top of that, “SVU” had 1 million more viewers than “Grey’s Anatomy” on NBC at the same time. With CBS sitcoms in reruns, “SVU” was the highest rated network show by far.
So why is Leight leaving? Good question. None of this makes sense.
And why is “Grey’s” doing so badly? Has the audience finally tired of the same old stuff and the killing off of fan favorites? Last night’s show wasn’t their worst rated of the season, but close to it. The trend is down, down, down. They’ve lost around 800,000 viewers this season.
Leight created an online community of fans for “SVU.” These fans are really dedicated to the show, and know everything. It’s kind of amazing that “SVU” has maintained and increased its viewership apart from the Benson-Stabler soap opera (of which I disapprove). On its own, without Chris Meloni’s DisOrganized Crime, “SVU” rocks.