AceShowbiz -

"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" may be looking at its most watched season. The criminal drama kicked off the tenth and final season on Sunday, May 1 to a great start with 5.1 million viewers tuning in. Statistically it went up 43|percent| from the premiere of season 9 in March last year.

"Criminal Intent" is making a triumph in most demographics, including adults 18-49 (1.88 million, up 35|percent|), adults 25-54 (2.04 million, up 21|percent|) and adults 18-34 (632K, up 31|percent|). The numbers also slightly affected the next hour when "In Plain Sight" premiered its fourth season. The opening episode averaged 3.9 million viewers or up 1|percent| from season 3 debut.

The major magnet was perhaps the return of Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe who play beloved detective team, Goren and Eames. Meanwhile, the announcement that this could be the final season is not weighed in too much because a lot speculated that this is not the last season after all. The New York Times noted in its article that "not everyone believes that the show is ending."

In fact, creator Dick Wolf recently said he's hoping the series could continue. USA co-president Jeff Wachtel also sounded the same hope, saying "The idea truly was to reward the audience. We wanted the audience to embrace the show's final season whose theme is the healing of Bobby Goren and bringing salvation."