Sam Waterston says Tony Goldwyn will be ‘great’ on ‘Law & Order’ – and he’ll be watching

Sam Waterston may be leaving “Law & Order,” but he is confident the show won’t miss a beat with his replacement, Tony Goldwyn.

“I think he’s going to be great. I think my reputation is in terrible danger because I think just he’s going to be wonderful and I’ll be watching,” Waterston said Feb. 21 on the 3rd hour of TODAY. “It’s going to be big trouble. It’ll be what the DA is, demanding and a lot of fun to watch.”

Goldwyn certainly has big shoes to fill. Waterston first began playing the character of Jack McCoy during the show’s fifth season in 1994 as the EADA, working his way up to district attorney and staying there until 2010 when the show was canceled. He reprised the role when “Law & Order” returned in 2022, tallying more than 400 episodes as the beloved character who has been around for three decades. Does it feel like it’s been 30 years?

“Yeah! Twenty-five or 30 years gets your attention,” he said.

“When they said goodbye to me, the last shot that I did was on the set of the courtroom and (creator and executive producer) Dick Wolf showed up and everybody gave speeches. And I quoted from Abraham Lincoln, going to D.C. at the beginning of the Civil War — that he had been there for 25 years. If 25 years doesn’t matter, nothing matters.”

And while Waterston, 83, is getting ready to say goodbye to his signature role, he’s not ready to ride off into the sunset and retire just yet.

“Not on your nelly. Not a chance. No, no, no,” he said while noting his wife and his manager “are in charge of finding me my next job.”

Waterston, who has been nominated for three Emmys for playing McCoy on “Law & Order,” is not actively looking for work and says leaving the part behind is liberating.

“I can’t tell you how freeing it is,” he said. “It happened the minute I was walking off the set of the courtroom on that last day. Suddenly, there was space in my head that I didn’t even know there was that had been occupied by the job forever. Even during hiatus.”

Waterston’s final episode of “Law & Order” airs Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. The episode will be available to stream the next day on Peacock.

(Peacock is part of our parent company, NBCUniversal.)

He said stepping away from the character could present him with new opportunities.

“It’s a wonderful thing to look at the world through somebody else’s eyes and that’s what an actor gets to do, but it’s also restricting. Now, it’s my own eyes,” he said.

As for what he plans to do next, well, that remains to be seen.

“I don’t know. I’m a little bit drunk on just the freedom,” he said.

Al Roker said he hopes he knows how much people love McCoy and his work playing him.

“Well, thank you for bringing that up because it gives me an opportunity to say thank you all very, very much for watching patiently over all these years while I have not gotten tired of acting. You’re beautiful. Thank you all,” he said.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com