SVU Casting Problem: Kate Silva’s Exit Is The Latest In a Longstanding Pattern — And There’s Only One Way Out

Here we go again.

News recently broke that Law & Order: SVU is losing two characters ahead of Season 27. (While the series has not been renewed as of this writing, it is expected to be)

One of those two characters, to nobody’s surprise, is Juliana Aidén Martinez’s Kate Silva.

Silva Is One Of Two Characters Leaving, But Her Exit Is More Disturbing

Both Kate Silva and Joe Velasco are leaving at the end of Law & Order: SVU Season 26.

Most likely, these are the two characters that are supposed to get a promotion. They’ll be gone, leaving Benson short-staffed at the beginning of Season 27.

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Velasco’s exit doesn’t bother me nearly as much as Silva’s does. He’s been part of the team since Law & Order: SVU Season 23, brought aboard as a spy McGrath planted in the department to make sure Benson was doing what he wanted.

Velasco didn’t do much to redeem himself after that first story, and Benson spent far too much time on the fact that he had nearly been forced to shoot someone as a gang initiation when he was in middle school.

Silva, on the other hand, is the latest casualty of SVU’s poor attempt to replace Rollins.

Rollins left in the middle of Law & Order: SVU Season 24, and ever since, the procedural has paraded a bunch of female detectives into the squad room, only to write them out at the end of the season.

Kate Silva Could Have Been Fantastic, But She Was Underused

Silva, like many of these women who are introduced and then discarded, had a lot of potential that the series never fully utilized.

She was introduced as the daughter of the Deputy Commissioner, who had transferred from Homicide to SVU for reasons unknown.

This was a fantastic set-up for drama… with zero payoff.

95% of the time, Silva wasn’t on-screen or was little more than a background actor with one or two lines.

When she did have a story, she demonstrated that she was a good fit for the team.

She was highly intuitive and great at building rapport with the youngest victims.

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But that wasn’t enough, not when she wasn’t on most of the time. Plus, there were no stories that led to conflict with her Deputy Commissioner dad or played into her decision to leave Homicide.

Was she even in the Law & Order crossover?

Maria’s murder would have been a golden opportunity to explore Kate Silva’s feelings about the Homicide Unit, but I don’t remember her even being on-screen.

Why Should The Audience Continue To Invest In Characters Like Kate Silva When They Always Leave?

Law & Order: SVU Season 27 will probably introduce a new cop to replace Silva, but what’s the point?

Every one of these cops since Rollins’ exit stays for a season or less — with the exception of Curry, who is a former IAB agent who has a small role and isn’t even part of the main cast.

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Why, exactly, are we going to put time and energy into investing in Silva’s replacement? Whoever she is, she won’t stay long, and she probably won’t get much in the way of character development.

Maybe I’m being too cynical. After all, we’re getting a new showrunner — the first woman in SVU’s long history — and maybe she will understand that creating an interchangeable female cop character won’t do anything for the audience.

Still, we’ve all been burned too many times.

No, Rollins Isn’t To Blame For These Awful Exits (In Fact, We Need More Of Her)

After the news broke, I saw several people on social media suggesting that Silva’s character couldn’t be developed properly because Rollins was allowed several guest appearances.

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Rollins only appeared in four episodes in a 22-episode season, and there was only one where she was used to her full potential.

If anything, her guest appearances mostly featured the same bad writing that Silva was getting, so Rollins’ cameos were not a factor in Silva’s problems.

However, part of the problem is that Law & Order: SVU keeps trying to find a cheap way to replace Rollins, and that’s what’s leading to this constant revolving door of female cops.

Rollins was written out initially because of a salary issue — Kelli Giddish had been with Law & Order: SVU for a dozen years, which made her far more expensive than an actor playing a brand-new character.

However, I’m not sure the series is saving that much money.

Every time they hire a new actor, they have to spend money on the job search, onboarding that person, getting them the right wardrobe, and promoting their introduction.

They’ve done this four or five times already. Have they really spent less than they would on one season’s worth of Rollins, who is already a hugely popular character?

I vote for bringing Rollins back full-time and nixing this constant rotation of female cops who don’t get proper character development and don’t stay.

What Do You Think, SVU Fanatics?

Let’s keep the conversation going — it’s the only way the good stuff survives.
Your voice matters. Use it in the comments and let’s discuss this casting issue. Share this article with your friends, too, so they can join in on the fun!

Let’s hear your opinions on why Kate Silva didn’t work out and what you think the solution is.

Law & Order: SVU airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9/8c and streams on Peacock on Fridays. The season finale airs on May 15, 2025.

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