Last week, Season 27 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit relaunched with its first episode since November, but it is now being reported that a major change is in the works for the rollout of the rest. NBC has made the call to pull an upcoming episode following reports of criminal charges being filed against guest star Timothy Busfield.
Busfield, best known for his roles in TV shows like The West Wing and thirtysomething as well as movies like Field Of Dreams, was set to appear as a judge in an upcoming Law & Order: SVU chapter titled “Corrosive,” but per Variety, that episode has now been pulled. The reason is because of an arrest warrant being filed in New Mexico that sees the actor/director accused of sexual abuse involving a minor – an accusation stemming from Busfield’s work on the Fox drama series The Cleaning Lady.
"Corrosive" was set to mark Busfield's third time working on the long-running legal show. He first appeared in Season 13's "Russian Brides," and he directed single episodes in Season 20 ("Facing Demons") and Season 21 ("Down Low In Hell's Kitchen"). He has been accused of touching the "private parts" of a minor during two separate incidents while working as a director on The Cleaning Lady, which spurred an internal investigation by Warner Bros. Television last year.
The pulled episode, which was set to be the tenth of the season, was initially scheduled to debut this coming Thursday, January 15, and it will now be replaced by "Fidelis Ad Mortem" (Episode 11, which was originally scheduled for January 22).
Busfield – who made his Hollywood debut in 1981 with a nameless role in the Ivan Reitman-directed comedy Stripes – most recently played an immigration officer in the season debut of The Cleaning Lady Season 4 last year, which was his first performance since an appearance on an episode of Billions in 2023. He has also completed work on a romantic comedy from directors Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein called You Deserve Each Other, which co-stars Natalie Morales, Kyle MacLachlan, Justin Long, and Hope Davis.
As a television director, his resume includes like FBI, Chicago Med, FBI: Most Wanted and Law & Order.
This marks just the second time that an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has been pulled from the schedule, with the first being the Season 18''s "Unstoppable" – which was directly inspired by sexual misconduct allegations against Donald Trump. The episode was originally meant to air in October 2016, but it was pulled and it has never aired.
Replacing "Corrosive," Law & Order: SVU's "Fidelis Ad Mortem" will air in the show's normal timeslot on Thursday on NBC at 9/8c.
