Is Law & Order: TOS Canceled?

Rumors began to fly yesterday the NBC is pulling the plug on the 20-season run of Law & Order.

Looks as though "Law & Order" will not beat out "Gunsmoke" as the longest running American TV drama. According to Deadline, NBC has decided to cancel the series, which is currently nearing the end of its 20th season. The "Law & Order" ratings have been dismal this year, but insiders were assuming that NBC would renew the series if only to let producer Dick Wolf break the "Gunsmoke" 20-season record. "Law & Order" will always be notable not just for its long life, but for pioneering the cool procedural approach to crime drama that continues to thrive. Cops and lawyers who reveal little of their personal lives, a step-by-step advance through crimes of the week, bad guys who slip through the law on technicalities -- these and other "Law & Order" trademarks are now de rigueur.

Earlier this year the show's longest-running cast member, S. Epatha Merkerson, announced that she would be leaving Law & Order at the end of the current season. In 2008 Merkerson broke the record for most episodes for an actress in a single series, when she surpassed Michelle Lee's 344 episodes in Knots Landing.

RELATED: I'm pretty sure I hold the world record for most hours of Law & Order reruns watched. I've seen some episodes more than 20 times, easily.