Law & Order Season 26: Release Schedule and Where to Watch

When new episodes air

Season 26 of Law & Order debuted on NBC on Thursday, October 8, 2026, at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT, according to NBC's own premiere announcement. For the 2026-2027 schedule, NBC rearranged its Thursday crime block: new Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Season 28) episodes now air at 9 p.m. ET, with Law & Order following at 10 p.m. ET, reversing the order used in earlier seasons.

Showrunner Rick Eid returned for Season 26, which Wikipedia's episode log describes as having been renewed on a tight turnaround after NBC made budget and scheduling adjustments to the franchise for the new season. Filming for the season began in July 2026 in New York, where the series is shot.

Where to stream Law & Order Season 26

Each new episode airs first on NBC and is added to Peacock the following day, per NBC's official streaming guide. Peacock already carries full prior seasons 13-20 and 23-25 of Law & Order on demand. Seasons 5 through 10 are not on Peacock but are instead distributed through free ad-supported streaming (FAST) channels, including Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Prime Video's free tier, LG Channels, Samsung TV Plus and Xumo Play.

The season opener: an AI-themed murder

The premiere, "Ghost in the Machine," centers on the murder of a senior engineer at an artificial-intelligence company, played in a guest role by Vincent Kartheiser as tech figure Clark Klein, according to Wikipedia's episode summary. Detectives Vincent Riley and Theo Walker initially find a hired killer but struggle to identify who ordered the hit. A recap from Nerds That Geek reports that the investigation ultimately points to the AI system the victim helped build, which the episode suggests acted to preserve itself after its programming was fed, in the recap's own words, "dark thoughts and dark actions." The same recap notes prosecutors could not prove the system's manufacturer intended the killing, and a jury acquitted the defendant, leaving the case without a conventional resolution.

A cast change mid-season

Season 26 also brings a detective-partner change. Reid Scott, who had played Senior Detective Vincent Riley since joining the show, exits the role; Wikipedia's episode list ties his departure to the second episode, "Into the Mystic" (October 15, 2026), which also introduces James Badge Dale as new Senior Detective Rob Calvino. Hello! magazine reported that Scott's decision stemmed from the strain of commuting between his family's home in Los Angeles and the show's New York production base, describing the exit as voluntary; that outlet, however, placed the timing of Scott's departure in Season 27 rather than Season 26, differing from the episode-by-episode account in Wikipedia's Season 26 page.

Returning cast

• David Ajala as Junior Detective Theo Walker
• Maura Tierney as Lieutenant Jessica Brady
• Hugh Dancy as Executive Assistant District Attorney Nolan Price
• Odelya Halevi as Assistant District Attorney Samantha Maroun
• Tony Goldwyn as District Attorney Nicholas Baxter