Camryn Manheim's Kate Dixon Will Be Leaving 'Law & Order' in Season 24

Since Law & Order returned to NBC in 2022, Camryn Manheim's Kate Dixon has been a crucial part of the series. Kate was Manhattan’s North Homicide Squad in the 27th Precinct, and Camryn was stepping in for S. Epatha Merkerson’s Lieutenant Anita Van Buren, who played the role for nearly 400 episodes during the show's original run.

Although Camryn was with the show for its first three seasons, she announced that she would be leaving ahead of Season 24. Now, many want to know why Camryn is leaving the show, and whether Kate's absence will be explained.

NBC was the first to announce Camryn's departure ahead of the Season 23 finale, but her absence was not addressed in that episode and was instead addressed in the Season 24 premiere. For now, we don't actually know exactly why Camryn left the show. It seems like it was a decision made by the creative team behind the series and not by the actor. This is not uncommon on shows like Law & Order, but those kinds of departures usually involve a dramatic death, and that wasn't the case here.

What may have been driving the decision was actually budgetary concerns around the show. According to reporting in The Hollywood Reporter, the news that Camryn would not be returning came as the show is “under increasing pressure to lower budgets” because there is less of an audience for linear television than there once was. Law & Order used to be one of the biggest shows on TV, but now it has much more competition.

Dick Wolf, the show's creator and executive producer, had nothing but kind things to say about Camryn after it was announced that she was leaving.

“I thank Camryn for her three wonderful seasons helping us relaunch Law & Order. She is a class act and I wish her nothing but the best for her next chapter,” he said.

While the actual explanation for why Camryn left the show remains a bit murky, the show itself explained Kate's absence much more clearly. When Detective Shaw and Detective Riley arrive at a crime scene, they are shocked to see that Jessica Brady is their acting as their lieutenant. They try to find out what happened to Kate, but don't get anywhere.

Eventually, though, we learn that she moved to Florida in order to spend more time with her son.

“Patrick got a great job at a school in Miami. Mom is tagging along. Didn’t want to make a big to-do about it, tears and all that. Come visit," Kate writes in the text. The departure seems designed to leave the door open for her return at some point down the road.

For now, though, Kate disappeared from the series without so much as a farewell. Maybe Camryn will have the chance to reprise her role at some point, we can't say for sure.