Law & Order: SVU fans, is that your collective breath of relief that I just heard? I know my breath was released.

It has just been announced that Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay have each signed deal to remain with the show for two additional years. And yes, it took some negotiations, probably pretty tense ones, to keep them on the show, but I think I speak for SVU fans who say, thank you, NBC! The show just wouldn’t be the same without them.

Of course, it isn’t all in the clear for these two. As many of you may know, the show has only been picked up for one more season as of right now: the eleventh season. But provided Law & Order: SVU is picked up for additional seasons, these two come with the show, sort of a package deal.

It was pretty uncertain as to the fate of Meloni and Hargitay in early April, when negotiations for further years came to a screeching halt. Sources said that they were trying to get a little piece of a pie that is almost never sliced: back end profits. At that time, NBC cochair Marc Graboff was reported to have said that the show would go on with or without the two stars. He further elaborated that it was pretty much in their hands to accept or decline the deal.

Although we aren’t sure exactly who gave in to whom, either way— Stabler and Benson will continue to take the bad guys off the street, one perp at a time.