Chris Meloni Leaving “SVU”

After twelve years, Detective Eliot Stabler is leaving the precinct. Chris Meloni, star of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” told Australia’s Courier-Mail that he’ll be calling it quit after this season.

“I think 12 years is enough, a good number,” the actor told the paper. “The writers will have fertile ground to figure out how to arc [Eliot] out to another place — whether it’s this world or the next.”

Meloni has starred on “SVU” with Mariska Hargitay since the NBC spinoff debuted in 1999. Hargitay plans to stay on, though she doesn’t know how her character, Detective Olivia Benson will fare without her partner. “I don’t think she could be without him. She loves him, he’s her other half.”