There has been less of Ice-T‘s Sergeant Odafin ‘Fin’ Tutuola on NBC’s Law & Order: SVU this season, and fans are noticing. The veteran actor-rapper was asked about his reduced presence on the Mariska Hargitay-led crime drama at a recent event and he said it was tied to the return of Kelli Giddish as a series regular for Season 27.
“It’s just basically business,” he said in a video shared by TMZ. “They brought Kelli back, and at the end of the day, they couldn’t really keep both of us on full-time, as far as budget-wise. So they said, Ice, we’ll have you come in and out this year, that way we could bring… Everybody wanted Kelli back, and we’ve got new cops and stuff like that.”
In addition to Giddish’s return, SVU promoted Aimé Donna Kelly series regular while two series regulars, Juliana Martinez and Octavio Pisano, left ahead of Season 27.
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Reducing the “minimum guarantees,” implemented for most cast members across Wolf Entertainment/Universal TV’s Chicago and Law & Order series, is a cost-saving measure used widely on long-running ensemble dramas to keep the budget under control. It involves series regulars not appearing in every produced episode.
For Ice-T, who was in every episode last season, the reduction is believed to be bigger than the average across the Chicago and Law & Order dranchises, which is 2-4 episodes a season. Ice-T has appeared in 4 out of the 8 SVU episodes that have aired so far this season; Giddish was in 6 out of the 8. Things are expected to somewhat even out over the rest of the season, with both Ice-T and Giddish both appearing in more than half of the 22 episodes, I hear.
“I’m gonna be sprinkled throughout this season,” Ice-T said.
Looking to alleviate fan fears, Ice-T stressed that the episode reduction is just that, though he raised concern over SVU’s renewal for Season 28.
“I’m not leaving the show,” he said. “I’m more concerned with going to Season 28… Everything was cool with me, I understood. I said, are you getting rid of me? They said, No way. We can’t imagine Law & Order without you.”
Ice-T went on to praise the SVU producers.
“I’ve been on this show for 27 years. I’m not gonna say nothing negative about that show, they’ve taken care of me for so long,” he said. “So don’t worry about me… I’ll be all right. But I know fans are upset. I’m kind of glad the fans are upset, because what if I was missing and nobody cared? That would be something to worry about, but the fact that the fans wanted to see a little bit more Fin, that’s good.”
Ice-T joined Law & Order: SVU at the start if Season 2. He was originally contracted for only a four-episode guest arc, but he ended up becoming a series regular, making him one of the show’s second longest-serving actors behind Hargitay.