<P> The nineteenth season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premiered on September 27, 2017 and finished on May 23, 2018 with a two - part season finale . </P> <P> Michael S. Chernuchin, who had previously worked on Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Chicago Justice took over from Rick Eid as showrunner . This is also the first season since season twelve in 2010--2011, where another Law & Order series--Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders--aired alongside SVU on NBC . </P> <P> Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was renewed for a nineteenth season on May 12, 2017 . Michael S. Chernuchin, who had previously worked on Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Chicago Justice took over from Rick Eid as showrunner, after Eid left SVU to be showrunner for the fifth season of Chicago P.D. after only one season as showrunner on SVU . Production on the season started on July 20, 2017 . On January 9, 2018, NBC ordered an extra two episodes for season nineteen, as confirmed in a tweet by Robert Brooks Cohen, rounding the episode count to 24 . </P> <P> Showrunner / executive producer Michael Chernuchin told The Hollywood Reporter that this season of SVU would be' ripping the headlines' of more current and political events such as the Charlottesville riots . Chernuchin noting, "Conflict . It's just the state of the world today with everybody . Everybody's political now and everything is political now and we want to deal with that ." Kate Stanhope at THR also mentioned to Chernuchin about the pulled episode ("Unstoppable") from last season, asking him if he was hesitant about diving into politics this season . Chernuchin replied, "I'm not going to choose a side . I won't choose a side . I'm going to present both political views and let the audience decide which one is right . My goal, and I told the writers on this on the first day of our writers' room, is at the end of every episode, I want half the audience to throw their shoes at the television and the other half to stand up and cheer ." </P>

Law and order svu season 19 total episodes
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