Sam Waterston To Step Down From ‘Law & Order’

Sam Waterston in 'Law & Order'
Sam Waterston in ‘Law & Order’ (Image credit: Peter Kramer/NBC)

Sam Waterston, who plays district attorney Jack McCoy on Law & Order, is stepping down from the role. He joined the show in 1994 and returned in 2022. His last episode will be February 22. 

Tony Goldwyn has been cast as the new district attorney. Goldwyn played Gordon Gray in Oppenheimer. He’s the director and in the cast for the film Ezra, which will be released in May, and his TV work includes Scandal and Lovecraft Country

Law & Order debuted in 1990 and ran until 2010. It came back for season 21 in 2022.
The show is averaging 6.4 million viewers this season across all platforms, according to NBC. The cast includes Hugh Dancy, Camryn Manheim, Odelya Halevi, Mehcad Brooks and Reid Scott. 

Dick Wolf is creator and executive producer. Rick Eid, Pamela Wechsler, Alex Hall, Arthur Forney and Peter Jankowski are executive producers as well.

Universal Television produces Law & Order in association with Wolf Entertainment.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.