NBCUniversal keeps Dick Wolf stable for a long time.
The procedural king, fresh off multiple series renewals for his Law & authority And Chicago franchises, has signed a two-year overall deal extension with Universal Television.
The new deal means Wolf will stay with Universal TV until 2027. His previous pact, which was signed in 2020 before the pandemic and came with three-season renewals for his run of shows, was a five-year pact that was a source at the time. described as the “biggest deal in TV history”.
“Universal Television has been my home for almost 40 years. It has been and continues to be one of the most successful partnerships in television, and I’m thrilled that we’re keeping the trains running for another four years,” Wolf said in a statement downplaying the previous five-year agreement as a three-year deal. year pact.
Wolf currently has three franchises that make up nine scripted series on the air through two broadcast networks: NBCs Chicago Fire, Chicago Police Department And Chicago med; NBCs Law & authority revival, Law & Order: SVU And Law & Order: Organized Crime; as well as CBS’ FBI, FBI: Most Wanted And FBI: International. All nine have already been extended for the 2023-24 season. He’s also behind Freevee’s upcoming half-hour drama On call and adapts his serialized podcast Dark forest as a series for Universal TV. (A platform for the latter has not yet been identified.)
“Whether in the comfort of their home or on the treadmill at the gym, it’s a safe bet that almost every adult in the United States has seen at least one episode of a Dick Wolf show at some point in their life . Dick is a cultural institution that has produced over 2,000 hours of television and we are excited that he will continue to make Universal Television his home,” said Pearlena Igbokwe, president of Universal Studio Group, of which Universal TV is a division. “With 10 scripted shows presented across multiple platforms and a new pipeline of unscripted series, Dick’s vision, creativity and love of television remain boundless, and we are proud to be his partners.”
On the unscripted side, Wolf is behind CNBC/Oxygen’s Blood money and NBC is coming LA Fire and Rescue. The latter will debut in June.
Wolf’s deal puts him on a parallel track as one of television’s most prolific producers, Greg Berlanti. Berlanti signed a new pact with his old home at Warner Bros. in January. Television Group, through which he will serve as a mini-studio with the company until 2027.
This is the last rich deal Wolf signed with NBCUniversal. In early 2020, before his overall deal, the prolific producer signed a rich six-show streaming deal with Peacock that gave the NBCUniversal platform rights to over a thousand episodes across six of Wolf’s shows: the flagship Law & authority and spinoff Criminal intentthe entire edition of SVU and all three Chicago series. Together, the streaming and overall deal was valued at more than $1 billion at the time.
Wolf is represented by WME and Ziffren Brittenham.
