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AMERICANALMANAC (Alan Benson) - Mariska Hargitay will host the Emmys, and she has no plans to leave 'SVU' Wed Aug 19 21:55:15 2026

At 62, Mariska Hargitay is juggling an Emmy hosting gig, a Broadway debut, an HBO documentary, and Season 28 of "Law & Order: SVU", and she says quitting is the last thing on her mind. NBCUniversal TV chair Pearlena Igbokwe called Hargitay one afternoon, moments before the actress was about to take the stage for […] The post Mariska Hargitay will host the Emmys, and she has no plans to leave 'SVU' appeared first on American Almanac .

At 62, Mariska Hargitay is juggling an Emmy hosting gig, a Broadway debut, an HBO documentary, and Season 28 of "Law & Order: SVU", and she says quitting is the last thing on her mind. NBCUniversal TV chair Pearlena Igbokwe called Hargitay one afternoon, moments before the actress was about to take the stage for a Broadway matinee, and offered her the job of hosting the September 14 Emmy Awards telecast. Hargitay's first instinct, she told Variety in a wide-ranging profile , was skepticism. "At first I thought, 'This is ridiculously thankless, a difficult job that everyone gets ripped apart for. Why? Why would I do that?'" Hargitay said. But she came around fast, framing the gig through the same lens she uses for everything else: television as a force for good. "Our show made people talk about sexual assault. Our show changed the culture. And that is the power of television, it creates community, which creates healing. Which is what I've wanted to do my whole life." That conviction, earnest, unironic, and delivered without a trace of Hollywood cynicism, is the through-line of a career that started in 1999 and shows no sign of winding down. Igbokwe wanted someone who "embodies television", and the room landed on Hargitay The Emmy hosting job rotates among broadcast networks each year. NBC's recent picks have included Kenan Thompson, the duo of Michael Che and Colin Jost, and Seth Meyers. Last year's host, comedian Nate Bargatze, drew criticism for a running joke about winners' lengthy speeches taking money from children in need. The bit fell flat, and Bargatze became what Variety described as "the object of mass audience disgruntlement." Igbokwe said the search this time started with a simple question. "My team was trying to figure out who embodies television, engenders goodwill, and everyone will want to come watch them. And when we got to Mariska, we all looked at each other: Yeah, absolutely." Hargitay is already deep into preparation. She told Variety she has "five amazing ideas just for the opening" and floated one of them aloud: "I've always wanted to do 'SVU: The Musical.'" Whether that lands as a bit or stays a brainstorm, the enthusiasm is real. She trained with the Groundlings comedy troupe before she ever auditioned for SVU, and Igbokwe insisted the comedic chops are there: "She is funny. She's got a wicked sense of humor." Twenty-eight seasons at Chelsea Piers, and a year that broke the routine wide open Hargitay is currently shooting Season 28 of "Law & Order: SVU" at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan, a job she describes as "all-consuming for 10 months a year." The show produces more than 20 episodes per season. She has directed nine of them. She won an Emmy in 2006 for the role of Captain Olivia Benson, a character who has risen through the fictional ranks of the NYPD across nearly three decades of television. "Chelsea Piers on a soundstage, that's my life," Hargitay said. But this year cracked the routine open. Hargitay made her Broadway debut in a one-woman show called "Every Brilliant Thing." She directed and produced an HBO documentary, "My Mom Jayne," about her late mother, actress Jayne Mansfield, who died in a car wreck at 34. Hargitay was three years old and in the back seat when it happened. The documentary earned her an Emmy nomination for directing and producing. She began shooting it in 2023 while SVU was still in production. "I don't even know how I did it," she said. "I just f***ing started!" Peter Jankowski, president and chief operating officer of Wolf Entertainment, the production company behind the "Law & Order" franchise, offered a simpler explanation of what drives her. "She brings the ability to listen like nobody else, and she can hear you. Her character is a broken character who's compelled to heal other broken people. She does it better than anybody, because in real life, that's who she is." Meloni's 2011 departure forced Hargitay to carry the show alone Christopher Meloni played Detective Elliot Stabler opposite Hargitay for 12 seasons before leaving SVU in 2011. Negotiations between Meloni and franchise creator Dick Wolf fell apart. Hargitay said she fought to prevent it. "I did not want him to leave. I tried so hard to broker that, because it didn't end great with them," she said. His exit left a question hanging over the show. Hargitay was candid about it: "I wasn't as vocal. It was a question for everybody: Can she hold the show? Can she lead the show? Nobody knew." She framed the moment as a turning point. "It was one of those moments of stepping up. And sometimes you don't step up until there's a space." Ice-T, who has appeared on SVU since its second season, confirmed the shift in blunt terms. "Chris was No. 1; Mariska was No. 2. Chris had notes on every scene, and he was kind of in charge. When you have somebody like that on the set, everybody else is comfortable. 'I'll let you do it. Less work for me!' When Chris left, Mariska took that spot." Meloni returned to the Wolf universe in 2021 as the lead of "Law & Order: Organized Crime," which has since concluded. Hargitay appeared in 14 episodes of that show. At the time of the Variety interview, Jankowski noted that Meloni was visiting the SVU base camp at Chelsea Piers for a meeting with showrunner Michele Fazekas. Meloni described their bond in terms of humor and mutual endurance. "The key of it was humor. If you can communicate through humor, then you have a very tight bond. You experiment with how far you can go. Sometimes it can be very cutting. Sometimes it can be very close to the bone of truth. And if each person can withstand the shots, we may play rough with each other, but if we can communicate comfortably, we can figure out the other stuff." Around Season 25, Julianna Margulies told her the "one-trick pony" worry was pointless Hargitay admitted she once considered walking away. Around Season 25, she had a conversation with actress Julianna Margulies, who left "ER" in 2000 when that show was still a ratings giant. Hargitay recalled the exchange vividly. "I said, 'I've got to leave the show too. I don't want people to think I'm a one-trick pony.' And she goes, 'Sweetheart, that ship's sailed.'" Hargitay stayed. She has now spent the better part of three decades playing the same character on the same soundstage. SVU launched in 1999. Fazekas, the show's current showrunner and the first woman to hold that title on SVU, was in the writers' room from Seasons 3 through 7 before returning last season. The continuity runs deep. Hargitay founded the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004 to support victims of sexual assault, a mission that grew directly out of her work on the show. She described the emotional toll of that intersection, fans approaching her as if she were the real-life version of Benson, in raw terms. "I started crying, and I remember, I started shaking. It just started spilling over. I could only hold so much. I had to do a lot of therapy to shore myself up from that." Courtside at Madison Square Garden for a 29-point Knicks comeback Hargitay is a devoted New York Knicks fan, and this year she got the payoff. She attended Game 4 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks rallied from a 29-point deficit in the third quarter. Taylor Swift sat next to her. "My heart was in two places, I'm not going to lie," Hargitay said. Game 5, when the Knicks clinched the championship, fell on a Saturday, the same night Hargitay had an evening performance of "Every Brilliant Thing" on Broadway. She jokingly asked the theater if Daniel Radcliffe, who had originated the role, could fill in. He could not. She performed, then raced home and watched the second half. "I'm not interested in sitting in a box! I need to be there. I need this for them!" she said of her approach to Knicks fandom. Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson, who attended both Hargitay's Broadway show and the New York premiere of her HBO documentary, returned the affection: "Mariska is my favorite New York Knicks fan. I'm so grateful for the relationship we have been able to build over the last few years. As a lifelong fan of 'SVU,' her support means the world to me." Hargitay connected the Knicks' comeback to lessons from her father, Mickey Hargitay, a competitive bodybuilder who raised her after Jayne Mansfield's death. "My dad was an athlete. I grew up with 'Mariska, it takes that much more. That's what being a champion is.' I have that every day: 'How can I be better?'" She applied the same philosophy to the Knicks' historic rally: "You're standing in a miracle. The world was changed. New York was changed. The bar of what's possible has changed. You can be down 29 points and still win, this is what's in the consciousness of young athletes now." A night shoot in fake rain, and the refusal to coast Hargitay described a recent SVU season finale, directed by Brenna Malloy, that required the cast to work a night shoot in artificial rain. Her response: "Bring it! Finish strong." Afterward, she said, the satisfaction was complete. "I felt so happy, satisfied, sated, proud. That's how you finish strong." Before SVU, Hargitay's career included guest spots on "Seinfeld" and "Ellen" and a role in Season 4 of "ER." She trained with the Groundlings. None of it prepared her for the scale of what SVU became, or for the weight of playing a character who serves as a surrogate for real victims of real crimes. Igbokwe summed up the moment with a phrase that doubles as a marketing pitch: "We're in the Mariska renaissance. It's been the year of Mariska!" When asked about the Emmy hosting gig's potential to pull her away from the show, Hargitay shut it down. "I don't want to talk about that. I love inspiring people. I love bringing people together. I love television." In an industry that rewards reinvention and punishes loyalty, Hargitay's refusal to abandon the work that built her, and the people it serves, is the kind of commitment worth celebrating on any stage. The post Mariska Hargitay will host the Emmys, and she has no plans to leave 'SVU' appeared first on American Almanac .