Jeff Goldblum is coming back to television (if the Screen Actors Guild doesn’t go on strike)!

Chris Noth, most widely known for his turn as Mr. Big on Sex and the City, is leaving Law & Order: Criminal Intent after a three season run, and Goldblum is stepping in to fill the void. The show has been picked up for an eighth season of sixteen episodes (again, if the Screen Actors Guild doesn’t go on strike).

According to an article released by MSN’s TV News division a couple of weeks ago, the Law & Order creator, Dick Wolf, looks forward to Jeff Goldblum adding a new dimension to his already very successful show. Law & Order has been on television roughly since television began broadcasting in color (or it feels that way) and has a couple of very successful spin-offs: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and the already mentioned Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Chris Noth was a part of the original series from 1990-1995 and then joined the cast of Law & Order: Criminal Intent in 2005. The special spin-off airs on USA on Sundays.

While most know Jeff Goldblum because of his film career, he isn’t new to the television medium. In fact, he had a show on NBC called Raines, but that show was very short lived. In addition to appearing in Jurassic Park, The Fly, Independence Day and Igby Goes Down, Jeff Goldblum was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005 for Little Surprises, a short, live-action film.

Criminal Intent is on USA because NBC felt that three incarnations of one show would be overkill but thought that the spin-off could find a home on its cousin company, USA. I wonder if the brains behind CSI and all of its spin-offs will ever share the same feeling!