The actress’ run on the iconic series began in season 4, alongside S. Epatha Merkerson.

Jill Hennessy says Law & Order was ‘about to be canceled’ when she joined, under pressure to cast women

The actress' run on the iconic series began in season 4, alongside S. Epatha Merkerson.

By Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence is a former associate editor at **. He left EW in 2022.

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April 6, 2026 12:25 p.m. ET

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Jill Hennessy on 'Law & Order'. Credit:

The case was almost closed on *Law & Order* decades ago, according to a former star.

Premiering in 1990, the Dick Wolf-created series has run for 25 seasons and launched six spinoffs, but alum Jill Hennessy contends that *Law & Order* was on life support when she was cast in 1993 as Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid.

"At that point, it wasn't well-known," she told Yahoo in a recent interview. "I came in the fourth season, and it was about to be canceled."

For the first three years, the* Law & Order* series regular cast consisted of only men, until the season 4 additions of Hennessy and S. Epatha Merkerson, who joined as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren.

"Dick Wolf was being pressured to add women to the cast, so they decided to add two female characters, Epatha and myself," Hennessy revealed. "And within that year, the ratings went up — and it just got more and more successful."

Jill Hennessy and S. Epatha Merkerson on 'Law & Order'.

*Law & Order* soon became a consistent powerhouse for NBC, and the first spinoff, *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,* debuted in 1999. It is still going strong, 27 seasons later, and star Mariska Hargitay has arguably become the face of the franchise.

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*Law & Order* was eventually canceled in 2010 after 20 seasons, only to be revived in 2022. Hennessy spent three years on the flagship series, while Merkerson's stay extended all the way to the end of the initial *Law & Order* run.

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