TV Upfronts: Will ‘Law & Order’ Get Renewed? And Who’s Got the Shrimp Cocktail?

Every May, the five networks — NBC, ABC, CBS, CW, and Fox — premiere their fall schedules to advertisers. (This year’s upfronts start Monday at Radio City Music Hall.) Usually a nonstop, star-studded drinks fest, this upfront week looks to be a party season of cost-cutting and cutbacks. After a huge party last year that packed Gustavino’s, Fox is moving its upfront to a smaller venue and, this year, says the company, is all about “getting info into the hands of advertisers.� ABC, after a crush of paparazzi jostled the Desperate Housewives last year, is trimming both access to the red carpet and invites. “I just about expect people to start scalping,� says ABC spokeswoman Susan Sewell. And, instead of hiring superstar entertainers, expect more American Idols and a possible Hugh Jackman rumba — he’s the exec producer of CBS’s pilot Viva Laughlin.

Chad Kaydo, editor-in-chief of Bizbash Media, a Website that covers the events-planning industry, claims that networks are cutting back because “so many other outfits were glomming onto upfront week and infringing on the networks.� Not only was security becoming an issue, but, Kaydo noted, “all the shrimp cocktails were blurring together.�

At the upfronts, the nets will reveal the fate of “on the bubble shows� in the middle of the viewer rankings, among them CW’s Veronica Mars and CBS’s The Unit. But the one with the most suspense for New Yorkers is Law & Order. (Law & Order: SVU has already been renewed.) The drama, now in its seventeenth season, had seen ratings slide to about 9 million in a move to Friday nights. Industry trades predict the flagship of the “donk-donk� franchise will return to the air — but it may be on TNT. —Alexandra Peers