It’s safe to say that some TV shows couldn’t function without their main characters. No one can imagine Doctor Who without the Doctor at the center of its adventures, or Grey’s Anatomy without Meredith Grey, even though Shondaland is trying to prove otherwise today with the show’s 20th season.

Even if Olivia Benson’s name doesn’t appear in any Law & Order: Special Victims Unit titles, every single viewer now associates the show with her. Thanks to Mariska Hargitay’s dedication to the role, no one has any reason to believe that she’ll be leaving the show anytime soon, but some fans still fear that may happen.

How Many Seasons Are in Law & Order: SVU?

Already surpassing the original Law & Order series in terms of seasons, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has successfully survived the anniversary and has now been renewed for its 26th season on NBC. The loyal viewers, despite the many concerns and criticisms they have for a show, celebrated its return.

Mostly for the sake of spending more time with Olivia Benson.

No matter what you think about the way Olivia Benson has been written lately, there’s no other character on the show that draws viewers in like she does. Though there are still twisted and intense cases, many fans have already deemed SVU to be an “Olivia Benson show” and have made peace with that.

Taking Olivia Benson out of SVU would be an instant cancellation for the show, and pretty much every fan seems to agree with that. Although Mariska Hargitay, who has spent 25 years researching and developing the same character, doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, the idea of losing her certainly sounds daunting to fans.

“The show has no intention of continuing once Mariska leaves, which [is] one of the reasons why they’re not diving too deeply into these new characters. We know what we need to like them well enough, but not enough to feel invested. It’s much easier to invest all our time on Olivia, [who has] been around since day 1,” Redditor Successful_Candy_688 said.

One thing we do know for sure is that it’s impossible to predict when NBC will decide to wrap up Olivia Benson’s story, even though Mariska Hargitay seems to be 100% committed to staying until the very end.

If you are interested in following Benson’s arc, be sure to tune in every Thursday on NBC to not miss another episode, and keep an eye out for more news and behind-the-scenes updates.