In another casting shakeup for the longtime procedural, Jeffrey Donovan is exiting Law & Order after just two seasons.
The Burn Notice star has played Detective Frank Cosgrove since the NBC crime drama returned to TV for its 21st season in 2022 — after more than 10 years off the air.
Donovan’s exit follows longtime Law & Order star Anthony Anderson, who returned to the show to reprise his role as Detective Kevin Bernard — Donovan’s character’s partner — but departed after just one season. Supergirl alum Mehcad Brooks joined the cast in season 22 as Frank’s new partner, Jalen Shaw.
ET spoke with Donovan about his new Law & Order character in April 2022, and the actor revealed that Frank was an old school-style cop, with a long line of law enforcement in his family.
“He’s following in his father’s footsteps and in his grandfather’s footsteps and there’s a lot of honor in being a cop,” Donovan said of Cosgrove’s family, which he described as a very traditional Irish-Catholic household from the Bronx.
As a result, Cosgrove himself is a “tough, Irish cop” who was “struggling with the inescapable bias that you grow up in America with,” Donovan said of his character’s attempt to challenge his old way of thinking when it came to enforcing the law on the streets of New York.
Law & Order also stars Sam Waterston as DA Jack McCoy, Hugh Dancy as senior prosecutorial assistant Nathan Price, Oldelya Halevi as ADA Samantha Maroun and Camryn Manheim as Lieutenant Kate Dixon.
Law & Order is set to return for season 23 in 2024.
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