Law & Order: SVU’s Donald Trump-ian episode, “Unstoppable” has proven all but. It will not air November 16, as previously announced. The scheduling change actually happened a couple of days before the November 8 election, where Trump pulled off a stunning victory. It was triggered by the last-minute pre-emption NBC made for its Wednesday lineup last week when the network replaced originals of Blindspot, SVU and Chicago P.D. with repeats going against Game 7 of the World Series on Fox.
The pre-empted original episodes of the three dramas will air tonight instead. According to the program listings that NBC released on November 7, the day before the election, NBC has scheduled a new Blindspot for November 16 going into a two-hour Chicago P.D., with Unstoppable out. There are no more original SVU episodes scheduled though January 4, with specials taking over the night on November 23 and 30, so Unstoppable would not air until 2017.
While the episode had undergone close scrutiny at NBC before, during and after production, sources indicate that there is no change in the network’s plan to air it, even with Trump as president-elect. When will that happen is still TBD. Early January might not be a very suitable time frame as it is on the eve of Trump’s inauguration.
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As for the decision to go with a double Chicago P.D. on November 16, I hear it came because the two episodes of the drama had to air before a planned crossover with the other Chicago shows in early January. They also were deemed a good fit as a two-hour episode.
In the “Unstoppable” episode of SVU, written by veteran Julie Martin and showrunner Rick Eid, the Trump-esque character, played by Gary Cole, is a wealthy and boorish man who makes a run for the White House, but his plan might be thwarted by a woman who accuses him of raping her.
“Unstoppable” first was slated for October 12, then pushed to October 26 and then postponed until after the elections and slated for November 16 amid sexual harassment and assault allegations against Trump by multiple women following the October 7 release of the infamous 2005 Access Hollywood tape in which Trump made lewd comments about groping women to Billy Bush.