A day before Monday’s 78th Primetime Emmys, giddy headlines proclaimed that reigning king of basketball Jalen Brunson would be joining host Mariska Hargitay for a pre-taped intro bit. We got a few seconds of the real-life pals steaming work outfits together, of all things. Then, suddenly, Hargitay was leading an “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” production number that had her singing about Guy Fieri on an airplane and cuddling up with Jean Smart in a hotel bed, in what felt uncomfortably like an ad for Marriott and United Airlines, whose logos were prominently placed.
And then she was onstage at LA’s Peacock Theater, delivering a notably brief monologue. Spanning just eight minutes, the opening segment proved to be an accurate preview of a mediocre NBC and Peacock telecast that was by turns hasty, random, heavily reliant on big-name cameos, and not much of a showcase for Hargitay at all. It was a shame, not least because Hargitay was touted as the Emmys’ first female host since Jane Lynch in 2011.
For many years after the Glee standout’s stint, the awards relied on a rotating cast of SNL and talk-show guys. Recently, however, with late night in decline, they’ve cast a wider net, and results have been all over the map. Following Anthony Anderson’s forgettable performance, we got an effortlessly charming turn from Eugene and Dan Levy—and then last year’s tedious, gimmick-freighted telecast, led by standup superstar Nate Bargatze.
It wasn’t just gender that set Hargitay apart from those predecessors, though. She was also the Emmys’ first emcee not known primarily for her comedy work since 2008, when the five first-ever nominees in a new reality-TV-hosting category, including Ryan Seacrest and Heidi Klum, delivered what critics agreed was one of the worst ceremonies in history. Hargitay is, of course, synonymous with Olivia Benson, the heroic sex-crimes investigator she has portrayed in NBC’s Law & Order: SVU since its 1999 premiere.
What casual fans might not have known is that she trained with legendary improv troupe the Groundlings and appeared in sitcoms like Seinfeld; “all I wanted to be was you,” she told Amy Poehler on the latter’s podcast, Good Hang. Hargitay also went into the gig with lots of goodwill from audiences inside the Peacock Theater and at home. Not only is she an advocate for survivors of sexual violence, on screen and off; she’s also in the midst of a pop-culture renaissance, having won two Emmys for the documentary she directed about her famous mom, Jayne Mansfield, conquered the one-woman play Every Brilliant Thing on Broadway, and endeared herself to Knicks fans as a stalwart supporter on the sidelines of this year’s NBA Finals.
In light of all this, Variety dubbed her “a national best friend.” Maybe that explains why Hargitay was just kinda there with us throughout the ceremony, more an affable companion than a genuine ringmaster. In a monologue that was practically over before it started, she quipped about how many of the stars in the room she’d “arrested” in their guest appearances as SVU’s twisted perp of the week. There was a sendup of Nicole Kidman’s five-year-old viral AMC Theatres commercial, featuring an interjection (“That’s my line”) from Kidman herself.
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