S. Epatha Merkerson on Sam Waterston’s LAW & ORDER Farewell and Her Hopes for a CHICAGO MED-SVU Crossover

After more than 400 episodes, Sam Waterston is saying goodbye to LAW & ORDER—and his iconic character Jack McCoy—with the Thursday, February 22 episode, “Last Dance.”

And while the actor did a lot during his tenure with the show, one thing Waterston didn’t get to do was the once-teased LAW & ORDER and ONE CHICAGO franchise crossover. (L&O spinoff SVU previously crossed over with the CHICAGO shows, but it was before both franchises had full blocks on NBC.)

LAW & ORDER vet—and current CHICAGO MED star—S. Epatha Merkerson acknowledges a crossover, and on-screen reunion with Waterston, would have been tough, though, given she now plays a different character in the ONE CHICAGO world. “Not if I’m in the ED, you couldn’t do that,” she tells Give Me My Remote with a laugh. “You’d have people doing double takes!”

Merkerson, who portrayed Lieutenant Anita Van Buren in almost 400 episodes of LAW & ORDER and has starred as Sharon Goodwin on MED since the show’s first season in 2015, did offer praise for her former co-star on the eve of his big exit.

“I worked with Sam for 16 years and he is a consummate actor,” she says. “He is an incredible person to work with. That he’s leaving is pretty amazing, but his history on the show speaks for itself. A lot of things and storylines, Sam wanted to make sure were specific and viewed properly. He literally was very much a part of the essence of the show, and he always will be.”

“There are a few of us, I think, that stayed long enough [on LAW & ORDER] to have made our mark,” she continues. “And the two that come immediately to mind would be Jerry Orbach [who played Detective Lennie Briscoe] and Sam Waterston. He will be missed, but he certainly has left an imprint on the show.”

Merkerson does have a way the LAW & ORDER and ONE CHICAGO worlds could cross over in a slightly less universe-breaking way. “[LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT star] Mariska [Hargitay] and I have that joke: We would love it to happen,” Merkerson says. “She walks in the ED, I walk past her, and she does a double take. We say that all the time…but I don’t think [L&O and ONE CHICAGO executive producer] Dick [Wolf]’s gonna go for it.”

Watch a promo for Waterston’s final LAW & ORDER now…

Let's give a fond farewell to the legendary Jack McCoy. Watch Sam Waterston's final #LawAndOrder Thursday February 22 8/7c on @nbc and streaming on @peacock. pic.twitter.com/kr0tTlNbag

— 𝐋𝐀𝐖 & 𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐑 (@lawandordertv) February 16, 2024

RELATED:

• CHICAGO MED: ‘I Make a Promise, I Will Never Leave You’ Photos
• LAW & ORDER: Sam Waterston to Exit in February, Tony Goldwyn Joins the Cast

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