Law and Order: SVU Season 12 Episode 22 airs on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 at 10:00pm EDT on WNBC (NBC) TV channel.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (often abbreviated to Law & Order: SVU) is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and airing on NBC, the series premiered on September 20, 1999 as the first spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama, Law & Order. Currently in its 12th season, the series has produced 269 episodes to date.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit originally centered almost exclusively around the detectives of the Special Victims Unit in a fictional version of the 16th Precinct of the New York City Police Department (NYPD). In the style of the original Law & Order, episodes are often "ripped from the headlines" or loosely based on real crimes that have received media attention. The show stars Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler, a senior detective in the Manhattan SVU, and Mariska Hargitay as his partner, Detective Olivia Benson. As the series progressed, additional supporting characters were added as allies of the detectives in the Manhattan District Attorney's office and the Medical Examiner's office. Typical episodes follow the detectives and their colleagues as they investigate and prosecute sexually based offenses. The additional cast includes Stephanie March, B.D. Wong, Tamara Tunie, Dann Florek, Richard Belzer, and rapper Ice-T.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is currently the highest-rated series of the Law & Order franchise, and presently NBC's top rated scripted drama. The series has been nominated for and won numerous awards, including the 2006 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Hargitay (the first Emmy to be received by a regular on any Law & Order series).
