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After 16 years at NBC – 5 on ER and 11 on Law & Order: SVU – Neal Baer is heading to CBS. In a competitive situation, Baer has signed a three-year overall deal with CBS Television Studios. The pact, said to be in the high-seven figures, includes development as well as showrunner services. It starts on June 2, a day after Baer’s contract on SVU expires. Baer has been the executive producer/showrunner on SVU since the series’ second season. With him departing and the deals of stars Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni up at the end of this season, the future of the veteran NBC crime drama is in limbo. I hear that NBC pursued Baer to stay and ABC, where Baer worked on China Beach before joining ER, also made a play for him, but he ultimately found CBS to be best suited for him. CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler, who worked with him while he was on ER and she was an executive at the studio that produced the hit medical drama, Warner Bros. TV, had been looking to bring him over to CBS for more than a decade. With his medical drama and crime procedural background, the Paradigm-repped Baer, a trained pediatrician, is a great fit for CBS, which has built its schedule on crime procedurals and is trying to launch a successful medical drama franchise.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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Huge loss for NBC, HUGE gain for Nina. S.V.U. is one of the most critically under-rated shows on TV. Granted, I’m a big fan, but Neal and his team do such an amazing job. It’s a passion play every week. Cheers to Neal and CBS, but I hope S.V.U. goes on for another 20 years. TN
I think that many people don’t know that 89% of the time, there is shit on their fingers after whipping their butts.
If by most “under-rated” shows on TV, you mean “least watchable”, then, yes. It’s one thing to be dropped in to a successful franchise with a network who needs you, but another entirely to develop a show from the ground up, as Mr. Baer has found during countless development seasons.
Your point? They get his development which is pretty much a crapshoot for just about anyone (incl. successful showrunners). They also get the right to assign him to a show, I think CBS might have a procedural or two in their sched for him to keep chugging along. Solid move CBS.
Yay Neal! Could not have happened to a nicer, more talented man. He is a wonderful friend and mentor in a business where there are few.
He really really is! I wish him all the best.
SVU is such a great show..and has been for many years..but i think its time to call it quits while its still ahead..meloni and hargitay are making HUGE paychecks..which are well deserved..while ratings continue to slip…something just aint right..but then again..with NBCs horrible fall schedule…they still might need this show..hmmm..
People are tired of the political agenda of any Law and Order show these days. They’re always mocking or pushing something. We miss you Lenny..
I have to agree with you… even though I LOVE SVU. Maybe it IS time to call it quits… maybe Baer just wanted a change… maybe Mariska and Meloni want to focus on their families… who knows! I just hope when the show goes off the air it’s done with dignity…
The first season was pretty crappy… and now with talks of Mariska only being in 13 episodes and Jennifer Love Hewitt possibly coming in a female detective I can’t help but feel my beloved SVU is going to tank.
So, the ratings have been slipping? Huh. I didn’t know that.
The way the rest of NBC rates SVU isn’t going anywhere soon.
Neal Baer is a visionary and leader in Hollywood. While some may see SVU as pure entertainment, he has tackled some of the most important issues of our time: rape as a weapon of war, child soldiers, child obesity, HIV deniers, vaccine debates and more. As Neal always says, “Like it or not, people are learning from TV.” He carefully portrays these issues accurately and transports us with his amazing stories. He elevates TV to a force for positive social change. CBS is lucky to have him, and so are we.
Sorry but SVU has been increasing bad since Season 7 when Neal Baer announced there would be a change in the direction of the show. He took a great show and destroyed it. The writing and the acting had been sub-par for far too long. With Christopher Meloni thinking of leaving and the declining ratings, this rat jumping the sinking ship should be enough to get NBC to cancel SVU.
I agree completely with HGFM. Neal decided to spend his time concentrating on guest stars and forgot about good stories. He promoted the show as one about Emmy winning guest actresses and forgot about the good acting and stories that was the show’s hallmark. Even when he did have a good story, he tended to go off on some silly twist or political rant. He got rid of Diane Neal and anyone who watches the show knows what a disastrous change that turned out to be!
I was happy that Christopher Meloni decided to leave the show as he was no longer being given the quality of material that he got up until season 7. Neal appeared to think that if Chris wasn’t going to win an Emmy, then the character of Stabler wasn’t important anymore. It’s funny that Chris was shut up pretty quickly when he suggested that he was ready to leave but its okay for Neal to announce his departure? That’s a double standard and it will be interesting to see if Chris can make a statement now about his future.
With NBC continuing to mess around with the show’s schedule this year as well as last, CI ending, and with LOLA not lighting up the ratings, it appears as if this year could be the end of the entire L&O order brand for Dick Wolf.
HGFM and FCM are right on par here. Season 7 was the last excellent season, then the show took a turn that started to focus on guest stars. The ship officially sank after they decided to ax Diane Neal, and I’m still bitter about it. Neal Baer should be praised for the development of the show from season 2-7, but he ruined the show by changing something that was working so well. Christopher Meloni is one of the most underrated actors on television, and I’m ready to see him leave this ship that obviously doesn’t give him the stories he deserves anymore and land a job on cable somewhere. When an episode from the early years repeats in syndication, it becomes really obvious what a crap fest Neal Baer has turned it in to today.
Amazing how many of Neal’s friends took to this post immediately to talk about what a treasure to the human race he is. These are probably not people who have had to work for him, living their lives at arm’s length, never straying too far away for the off chance that he might decide that he needs someone to come down the hall and remind him what a genius he is. As with so many showrunners, he has no interest in ever leaving the office, and you’re the one who is abnormal if you have any inclination towards doing anything else. While some might be happy for those whose development deals lead to a pilot commitment — or god forbid an episode order — it only served to remind him how he can’t get his own ideas off the ground. He’s a hack, who is going to where all hacks go to die: CBS.
That’s cold! Not just for Baer but for CBS. Ouch.
I still watch SVU but it has been crap for some time now. Talented actors are being reduced to reciting dialog like, “Take a bite out of this [evidence regarding a dog bite].” I mean, give me a break. It has turned into camp, and not good camp at that. And while I tend to agree with the politics on the show, it does get to be too much. I don’t need it shoved down my throat how progressive the characters are, so I can only imagine how impossible it is for conservatives to watch the show. No one’s mind get changed that way, no one’s horizons are broadened. It only polarizes us more. Beyond that, it’s starting to worry me how we use rape and child molestation as entertainment.
There was a short period a few years ago when three women carried the show all by themselves with good scripts. After they all departed the show sunk. R. Johnson above must have worked there or know someone who did because he said what they all say. People were paid well to take Mr. Baer’s abuse.
I’m happy about this news. Though I thank Neal for making SVU into a quality show (seasons 2-6), he has really drove it into the ground recently (seasons 7-12). I just ask that the new showrunner for this show has a good head on his/her shoulders. I’m personally rooting for Ed Zuckerman, Judith McCreary or Dawn DeNoon to take over.