Law & Order: Hate Crimes was given a 13-episode order back in September 2018, though NBC pressed pause on the spinoff six months later.

(The Hate Crimes team was initially slated to be introduced during a Season 20 episode of Law & Order: SVU, but as TVLine reported at the time, NBC was focused on getting the latest spinoff “right” versus “meeting an artificial deadline.”).

Now, SVU showrunner Warren Leight, who has been shepherding the Hate Crimes offshoot, told the latest edition of THR’s TV’s Top 5 podcast, “I think it was perceived to be a better fit with Peacock” aka NBC Universal’s new streaming service.

Even in light of (or because of) current events and TV’s responsibility to react to them, which Leight addressed in-depth on the podcast, “I think [Hate Crimes] is a show that needs to be made,” he said.

At the time Hate Crimes was announced, Wolf issued a statement saying, “As with all of my crime shows, I want to depict what’s really going on in our cities and shine a light on the wide-ranging victims and show that justice can prevail

That’s what I hope we can do with this new show in a world where hate crimes have reached an egregious level.”