Law and Order: SUV Can’t Afford Both Ice-T and Kelli Giddish at the Same Time

Even shows that have been on for almost 30 years need to mind their budgets. Ice-T explained why his Law & Order: SVU character, Sgt. Fin, hasn’t been around much for season 27, and he has no hard feelings about it. “[The show] brought Kelli [Giddish] back, and at the end of the day, they couldn’t really keep both of us on full time, as far as budget-wise,” Ice-T shared with TMZ. “So they said ‘Ice, we’ll have you come in and out this year’… I understood, everything is cool with me.” He confirms that he’s not leaving the show, but he is a little worried going into season 28; it’s unclear if he’s talking about his character or the show as a whole, but either way, he isn’t going to speak badly about his longest job yet; Ice has been on the show the second longest, behind Mariska Hargitay. He says, “I’ve been on this show for 27 years. I’m not going to say nothing negative about that show. They’ve taken care of me for so long.” Ice-T is grateful for the break, since it’s giving him time to work on other projects, and that fans have been upset about his notable absence on the show. “What if I was missing and nobody cared?” he wondered. Thankfully, we do not have to live in that reality.

Giddish, who left the main cast of SUV in 2022 after 12 years on the show, made brief returns in subsequent seasons before returning again this year. “I couldn’t be happier about it. It feels revitalized in a whole new way, even though it’s Season 27,” Giddish explained to Extra shortly after her return. SUV is still less than halfway through its 22-episode season, and with Giddish and Ice-T each appearing in roughly half of the episodes aired so far, it seems like there’s plenty of room for all the sergeants at the precinct.