15-05-2025
Law & Order: SVU Is Bringing Kelli Giddish Back as a Series Regular
Our long, 'Rollisi'-related nightmare is over: Kelli Giddish is returning to Law & Order: SVU full-time, TVLine has confirmed.
Giddish will be back on the NBC procedural as a series regular in Season 27. Our sister site Deadline first reported the news.
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Giddish left SVU as a series regular in December 2022 but has returned several times since then. In Season 26, which comes to a close tonight, so far she has shown up in five episodes; Episode 20 was the latest. At times, it felt as though the show struggled with how to reconcile Rollins' heightened importance in the show's history with the reality of Giddish's limited stints.
Series star/executive producer Mariska Hargitay has gone on record saying that she fought Giddish's ouster in 2022 and that she wanted to bring her back in more than a recurring capacity.
'Kelli is my favorite actor to work with. Kelli is my heart,' Hargitay said in a May 2024 interview with our sister site Variety. 'It's a sore subject. I have a lot of say on the show [as the star and an executive producer since Season 15], but I didn't have enough there.'
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She added: 'I don't like not being listened to, especially when I'm right… That relationship was one of the most powerful relationships in television because you saw these two badass women, so flawed and so there for each other.'
Season 26 found Giddish's character promoted to sergeant and taking on a new role in the New York Police Department's Intelligence Unit. Rollins' new job often required travel, which explained her absences from both the police department and her home life with husband, Assistant District Attorney Dominick 'Sonny' Carisi, and their children.
Do you have thoughts on Giddish's full-time return? Hit the comments with your thoughts!
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