Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (often abbreviated to
Law & Order: SVU or just
SVU) is an
American police procedural, legal, crime drama
television series set in
New York City, where it is also primarily produced. 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. Created and produced by
Dick Wolf, the series premiered on
NBC on September 20, 1999, as the first spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama,
Law & Order. The show started its 17th season on September 23, 2015, and has aired 379 original episodes as of February 3, 2016. It is the
current longest running scripted non-animated U.S. primetime TV series since the cancellation of the original
Law & Order in 2010 and is the
fifth-longest running scripted U.S. primetime TV series on a major broadcast network.