Law & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural drama television series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced.

In the style of the original Law & Order, episodes are often "ripped from the headlines" or loosely based on a real crime that received media attention.

The 10th and final season premiered on Sunday, May 1, 2011, at 9 p.m. EDT[1] with original cast members Vincent D'Onofrio[2] and Kathryn Erbe[3] starring as Detectives Robert Goren and Alexandra Eames, respectively, and featuring Jay O. Sanders as Captain Joseph Hannah.

Each episode features a cold open of the victim and suspects in (at most) a few days leading up to the crime; these scenes are presented without context, and maintain suspense as to the perpetrator's identity and often motive, until the ensuing investigation reveals these.

Unlike other Law & Order series, most Criminal Intent episodes end with the detectives eliciting confessions, rather than continuing to the trial phase.

The UK-aired version of Law & Order: Criminal Intent features the song "There's Only Me" by Rob Dougan in the opening credits (seasons 1–5).

[10] In May 2007, NBC faced a choice of renewing either Criminal Intent or the original Law & Order, which had seen a ratings increase in the last few episodes of its 17th season.

Criminal Intent's new episodes were moved to the NBCUniversal-owned USA Network, where it could be expected to attract a much larger audience than the cable channel's average.

Season 7 was the top-rated television series on basic cable, having more than quadrupled the audience for the 10 p.m. Thursday slot on USA Network when compared to the ratings from the previous year.

[14] At the end of season 7, Leight, who left to focus on In Treatment, was replaced by new executive producers Walon Green and Robert Nathan.

Other executive producers on the series were Norberto Barba, Peter Jankowski, Diana Son, Julie Martin, and Arthur W. Forney.

In April 2009, NBC began airing Law & Order: Criminal Intent season 8 encores a few days after they premiered on USA.

Walon Green, Peter Jankowski, John David Coles, and Dick Wolf were the executive producers for the ninth season of Criminal Intent.

Media outlets reported in August 2010 that actor Jeff Goldblum (Detective Zachary Nichols) had decided to leave the cast of Law & Order: CI, citing concerns about the show's future.

[15] On September 22, 2010, Variety announced that Criminal Intent had been renewed, and that Vincent D'Onofrio would be returning to the series as Detective Robert Goren for its final season.

[2] Kathryn Erbe subsequently signed on to reprise the role of Detective Eames for the eight-episode final season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

[20] The tenth season ended on June 26, 2011, and USA Network announced the following month that they were choosing not to air more episodes of the series due to costs.

"[22][23] In August 2012, it was announced that Kathryn Erbe would be playing her character Alexandra Eames again in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit's fourteenth season.

Detective Eames transferred out of Major Case, and is now working for a joint City/Federal Homeland Security Task Force, and crosses paths with the SVU squad when their investigation of a sex trafficking ring uncovers a connection to terrorists.

Warren Leight, who now is showrunner and executive producer on Law & Order: SVU, tweeted that Erbe's first episode would be the fourth of the season, "Acceptable Loss".

[25] In February 2013, Warren Leight further tweeted on Criminal Intent's ending, "... simply put, USA didn't make enough money on LOCI to justify even the final 8 [episodes] they did.

Courtney B. Vance's Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver is frequently in conflict with all the detectives because they tend to rely on hunches and instinct, when he wants more hard evidence.

In the fifth season, Chris Noth joined the cast, reprising his role as Detective Mike Logan from the original Law & Order.

In reality, Julianne Nicholson was pregnant with her first child and was replaced temporarily by Alicia Witt, playing Detective Nola Falacci.

At the beginning of season nine, sections of the MCS ceiling were removed and banks of incandescent lighting strips were added to steepen the warmer, sunny day look of the drab squad room.

Starting with the sixth season, the editing style changed, moving away from the style of the other shows in the Law & Order franchise (examples: zooms, colors, and thud sounds used to quickly fade to commercials, quick brightening effects and sharp sounds to show scene changes) and the tempo of the background music was amplified and at a faster pace.

Leslie Hendrix also reprises her L&O role as Medical Examiner Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers as a recurring character throughout the run of the series starting with the first-season episode "The Faithful".

In the 14th season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (L&O: SVU), Kathryn Erbe reprised her role as Alexandra Eames in the episodes "Acceptable Loss" and "Poisoned Motive".

Jo, a 2013 series created by René Balcer, featured Olivia d'Abo reprising her role as Nicole Wallace in its last episode.

In the 22nd season of L&O: SVU, Annabella Sciorra reprised her role as Detective (now Lieutenant) Carolyn Barek in the episode "Hunt, Trap, Rape, and Release".