WI: Law & Order Survives?

When NBC cancelled the original Law and Order, Dick Wolf pursued cable to pick it up. Let's say that HBO picks up the series. What would be the effects of this on television in general with a giant being moved from network to cable? And what would the show look like in a few years? How long would it last?
 
I think HBO is an unlikely destination; TNT is probably more likely (they had already picked up Southland after it was cancelled by NBC) or USA (if the show stays in the NBC Universal family). But if another network picked it up, I think it could last quite a while: the cast at the time the show was cancelled was about the best it had had since the nineties, Jeremy Sisto and Anthony Anderson were a great partnership on the detective side, probably the best since Orbach and Bratt.
 
Yeah they were but I think Briscoe was the elephant in the room those last six seasons. Jerry orbach made that show his own for a long time, when he died the show seemed to lose something it never quite got back.

As to another season, well if l&o is still on la might fail even quicker than it did, since along side the production problems it would seem even more like a copy, (with more sun) than it did. Also if the original series ended up on USA they might pass on the final season of ci, which would be a shame. (They tossed Goren and co under a bus once to save the main series I can see it happening again).

Svu probably stays much the same, I doubt they could have kept stabler any longer than they did, though if L&O went to USa network you might see a crossover or two to promote the show a bit, since Svu is now the only L&O on a network.
 
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