LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: Warren Leight Explains the Cut Crossover Diner Scene

When NBC teased the recent LAW & ORDER crossover, a scene of former partners Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) catching up in a diner led off the frequently-airing promo.

It was a far cry from where they had ended in ORGANIZED CRIME’s fourth episode, with Olivia sending Elliot’s calls to voice mail, after his family staged an intervention that he, well, didn’t handle well. And when the crossover hours aired, the scene was nowhere to be seen in the SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT episode, where it was originally set to be set in.

When fans online questioned SVU showrunner Warren Leight about its absence, he confirmed it was swapped out for another scene. “[T]he scene in the morgue garage was where the diner scene would have been,” he wrote on Twitter. “More or less.”

The reasoning? Things shifting on ORGANIZED CRIME.

“What happened was we shot our episode—[production] was supposed to be in sync starting with our episode 9 and their episode 1, but a new show takes longer to shoot, there was COVID [shutdowns]—and we ended up pulling ahead by three or four weeks,” Leight says. “So we shot a scene based on things we had reason to believe would be in the episode that ended the week before. And then that episode changed. So we have an entire scene in the diner where Olivia and Elliot are talking about things that never happened.”

“So we can’t use that; that’s a parallel universe scene,” he continues. “And so we had to retrofit [with the new scene]. And the morgue scene actually worked out really well.”

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC

RELATED:

• LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: ‘Trick-Rolled at the Moulin’ Photos
• LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: Lee Tergesen and Anna Wood to Guest Star
• LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME: Peter Scanavino on the Shadow Trial Gamble, the Shifting Carisi and Stabler Dynamic
• LAW & ORDER: NBC Teases Simon-Centric SVU and ORGANIZED CRIME Crossover
• LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT Post-Mortem: Peter Scanavino on What’s Next for Rollisi
• LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: Peter Scanavino on the Complicated Rollisi Dynamic
• LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT’s Peter Scanavino Teases the ‘Really Big’ Season 22 Finale
• LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT Exclusive Clip: Carisi Warns Olivia About Potential Trouble for Elliot
• LAW & ORDER: SVU and ORGANIZED CRIME: Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni Break Down Olivia and Elliot’s Messy Reunion
• LAW & ORDER SVU and ORGANIZED CRIME Crossover: Stabler Reunites with Benson, But Suffers a Life-Changing Loss
• LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT Sets ‘Born Psychopath’ Sequel
• NBC Officially Teases LAW & ORDER: SVU and ORGANIZED CRIME Crossover
• Exclusive: LAW & ORDER: SVU Adds a Trio of Stablers for ORGANIZED CRIME Crossover
• Watch Benson and Stabler Reunite in New LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT-ORGANIZED CRIME Crossover Promo
• Christopher Meloni Shares On-Set SVU Reunion Photo with Mariska Hargitay
• Christopher Meloni Shares First Photos of Elliot Stabler’s SVU Return
• SVU Boss Shares First Rehearsal Photo From ORGANIZED CRIME Crossover
• LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME: 6 Burning Questions about the New SVU Spinoff
• Christopher Meloni Teases LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME and the Benson-Stabler Reunion

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page.

And be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made through links/ads placed on the site.