If you've been waiting for that Donald Trump-inspired episode of Law & Order: SVU, don't hold your breath. In a new interview with one of the show's stars, Ice-T, Vanity Fair reports that it'll probably never air.
Last year, fans got wind of an episode that would feature guest star Gary Cole playing a role that seems a little too real. Imagine a presidential candidate who finds himself facing allegations of sexual misconduct. The episode even had a title: "Unstoppable." It was set to air on October 12. Then, it got pushed to October 26. Next, November 16. After the actual real-life election, NBC quietly decided to take the episode off the docket entirely. In January, Dick Wolf, the show's executive producer, mentioned the episode during the Critics Association press tour, saying, "I suspect it will be [airing] this spring, but I don’t know." Let's just say that doesn't inspire much confidence.
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Ice-T's statement, however, is much more cut and dry. "I don't even think it's worth showing," he told Vanity Fair. "It wasn't one of our best shows."
For anyone who wants to know about the episode, the actor offered up plenty of details. Warning: These are major spoilers — but can you spoil something that'll most likely never ever see the light of day?
"There was this guy who was running for president — he was very Trump-ish, and girls were coming out of the woodwork saying he was raping them," Ice-T explained. "And me and Mariska [Hargitay, who plays Lt. Olivia Benson], we're on his bumper, and he's sweating it. But at the end of the day, it comes out that he was innocent. He didn't do it. So we've got to apologize, and he's still doing his thing, talking his shit. And it turns out that his campaign advisor, who was his best friend, was booby-trapping him because he knew he would be terrible for America!"
"They were, like, 'Oh, shit!' And then they said, 'Oh, my God, it's going to look like...' You know, because Law & Order wants to be close, but not too close. Also, I think [Cole], he channeled Trump," he continued. "So even though this guy he played wasn’t Trump, he acted like Trump. I think NBC just said, 'You know what? This might be cheesy or corny.' And to put it out now, it's old and stuff. So I think they just got rid of it."
But the fact that the episode got buried doesn't bother Ice-T in the least. He's proud of his work on SVU, but now that he has the luxury of picking and choosing his roles, he wants to shine the light on things that fans can see, not just speculate about. "I don’t know if they burned the shit or whatever," he said. "They paid me for it. I don’t give a fuck, really. I got my money!"