Jonathan Last noted last week that Law & Order may actually be in danger of getting cancelled. That seems daft to me – while people like Jerry Orbach and Sam Waterson have been major factors in the show’s success, the Law & Order format doesn’t depend on keeping particular writers or cast any more than, say, the Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, or the Evening News do – if the show isn’t working, the answer is to replace the people, not cancel the show.
That said, obviously if the show were to go off the air, Fred Thompson – who is increasingly being urged to run for president by Republicans dissatisfied with the 2008 field – might have one less reason to stay out of presidential politics.