NBC Celebrates Mariska Hargitay With SVU Marathon Ahead of Emmy Hosting Gig
NBC is throwing a three-hour prime-time party for Mariska Hargitay. On 10 September 2026, the network will air back-to-back episodes of Law & Order: SVU billed as a "best of Mariska Hargitay" night, landing four days before she hosts the 78th Emmy Awards on the same network Variety.
The three selected episodes are not random picks. Each one earned Hargitay an acting nomination, and together they trace a decade of her most decorated work on the series The Hollywood Reporter.
First up is "Charisma" at 8 p.m., an Emmy-nominated episode that originally aired 16 November 2004. It centres on a con artist, forger and thief who turns to murder and serial predation to build a cult and seize a multimillion-dollar trust fund The Hollywood Reporter.
At 9 p.m. comes "911," which originally aired 4 October 2005 and earned Hargitay the Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a drama series. The episode opens with a child calling for help, claiming she is being held hostage, and the SVU team must keep her on the line long enough to find her The Hollywood Reporter.
The 10 p.m. slot belongs to "Undercover," an Emmy-nominated episode from 15 April 2008. Hargitay's Captain Olivia Benson goes undercover inside a correctional facility after a teenage girl reports being raped by a corrections officer who threatened her mother in prison The Hollywood Reporter.
Hargitay has played Olivia Benson since SVU launched in 1999 — 26 years in the same role, with no sign of stopping. She has racked up eight Emmy nominations for the part, plus two Golden Globe nominations and one win. She also serves as an executive producer and director on the series Variety.
Her Emmy profile extends beyond acting. Hargitay received two additional nominations this cycle for her documentary My Mom Jayne — one for outstanding documentary or nonfiction special and one for outstanding directing for a documentary/nonfiction program Variety.
The 78th Emmy Awards air live on NBC on 14 September at 5 p.m. PT from the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE in downtown Los Angeles. Hargitay will be the first woman to host the annual ceremony in 15 years The Hollywood Reporter.
For SVU itself, the marathon arrives during a particularly busy stretch. The series begins its 28th season on 8 October 2026 and will air its 600th episode later that year. Episodes stream on Peacock the day after their NBC debut. The show is produced by Universal Television in association with Wolf Entertainment, with Dick Wolf, Michele Fazekas, Hargitay, Ken Brown, Rebecca McGill, Anastasia Puglisi and Peter Jankowski serving as executive producers Variety.
For fans, the 10 September marathon is a chance to revisit three of the episodes that put Hargitay on the awards map — and a warm-up lap for an Emmy night that will be, in more ways than one, her own.
