The new investigative audio series, Law & Order: Criminal Justice System,deals with compelling characters and complicated cases, just as the NBC drama show that inspired it. The formula has stood the test of time, not only with , but its spinoffs,Special Victims Unit and Organized Crime.
New York City's landmark trials are explored in the true crime podcast, with the first seasonfocusing onthe fall of the mafia in the late 1970s.
The podcast's host, Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, a formerprosecutor for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, has been a longtime fan of Law & Order.
“I would come home [from prosecuting homicide cases] and I would watch those episodes back-to-back ‘cause they always seemed to be on somewhere,”Nicolazzi told NBC Insider. “There’s no pressure when I’m watching someone else do it, [and] it's really fun to see how your life is portrayed by others. And it was always done in a way that I felt good about, because I felt there was a respect for the men and women of the profession much beyond me, but people that are in the labs, and that are on the frontlines of these different things.”
Law & Order: Criminal Justice System podcast host Anna Sigga Nicolazzi. Photo: Bealthee Photography
Will the Law & Order: Criminal Justice System podcast feature the "dun-dun" sound effect?
If the trailer for the new podcast is any indication, the iconic "dun-dun" sound effect from Law & Order, as well as the show's familiar voiceover and theme song, will be featured in the audio series.
"The fangirl in me is very excited,” Nicolazzi told NBC Insider.
The former prosecutor and Law & Order: Criminal Justice System host, who alsoco-hosts the true crime podcast Anatomy of Murder, says her new gig is a "great marriage of what I've always done skill-wise."
"They are taking Law & Order into the justice system and really wanting to peel back the onion from the voices of those that have actually worked these cases,"Nicolazzi said of the podcast.
Law & Order: Criminal Justice System podcast. Photo: iHeart
How Law & Order's new true crime podcast will feel familiar to the show
Each episode will be told through interviews with the prosectors and members of law enforcement who worked on the case, as well with family members of the mob bosses involved.
"Law & Order...and the criminal justice system has taken both from law enforcement and the prosecutor's perspective and we do the same thing, except rather than actors portraying those involved, we actually are speaking to the people,"Nicolazzi told NBC Insider."We have the FBI agents who worked undercover. You hear from those that were supervisors and really had to think of a different approach than anything that had been done before. We have prosecutors who turned into some of the most important attorneys and government officials today in the United States."
Nicolazzi recalls being introduced to the streaming and audio leadership team atWolf Entertainment, the production company behind the Law & Order and Chicago franchises. "We just had this great synergy of ideas,” Nicolazzi said. “Them bringing all their skillset and media to the table and plus my knowledge of this world— it really was a fit that fortunately, I think felt very right for both sides and I'm just really excited... because criminal justice, it just hits so many facets and impacts so many people.”
Law & Order: Criminal Justice System podcast host Anna Sigga Nicolazzi. Photo: Bealthee Photography
Nicolazzi called this endeavor between Wolf Entertainment and iHeart “pretty exciting” to work on.
“To have that group of minds both fromWolf Entertainment— which their storytelling is second to none— and iHeart, which just the effort and the talent that they have given to this podcast, is just an amazing thing for me to see,” Nicolazzi explained.
“Law & Order has such a huge fanbase, and their franchise covers so many different areas of our system,” Nicolazzi said. “I really look at this podcast as for the Law & Order fans who know what they're coming for, because they know the company that brings them content that is exciting and meaningful.I think it's [also] for the true crime fan because these are all real events and you're hearing not just someone telling you of the story, but the people that actually are the story because they were the ones inside these homes.”
The first two installments of the 10-episode first season of theLaw & Order: Criminal Justice Systempodcast debut on Thursday, August 22. Another episode will follow every Thursday through October 17.
For all thingsLaw & Order, follow@nbclawandorderand@wolfentertainmenton Instagram and Twitter.
