USA Network has renewed Dick Wolf's Law & Order: Criminal Intent for a tenth and final season. Vincent D'Onofrio, who played the volatile Det. Robert Goren for eight seasons, will return for the show's swan song season.
Jeff Wachtel, president of original programming at USA and co-head of original content at Universal Cable Productions, made the announcement Sept. 21.
The final eight-episode season of Criminal Intent will bow in 2011.
Additionally, the studio has also made a pilot commitment to Wolf. Wolf's original Law & Order, dubbed "the mother ship," was axed by NBC earlier this year despite 11th hour negotiations by Wolf to save it. It's unclear if Wolf's new USA pilot will be another L&O spinoff.
In their statements, Wachtel and Wolf seemed to hedge their bets about whether the tenth season of Criminal Intent would indeed be the last.
"We have been the fortunate caretakers of this legendary series, and we plan to give it the world-class farewell it so richly deserves. Dick and his team promise to create a major event for television with incredible surprises," Wachtel said in a statement. "The plan is for this to be the series finale, but with a Dick Wolf franchise, one really never knows until it's over."
And Wolf added a reference to an oft-retiring but still active NFL quarterback.
"Only time will tell if this is a fond farewell or a renaissance for Detective Robert Goren but everyone both here and in New York is ecstatic about going back to work on a show that's a passion for all of us," Wolf added. "Signed, Brett Favre."
