Taylor Swift's Secret SVU Sketch Steals Emmys Night
Taylor Swift pulled on a detective's badge for the Emmys, surprising viewers with a pre-taped Law & Order: SVU spoof alongside host Mariska Hargitay.
Hargitay, who plays Captain Olivia Benson on SVU, hosted the 78th Emmy Awards on Monday night. She was the first woman to host the ceremony in 15 years, according to Deadline. The show was run by executive producers Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon and Janae Rouzon-Clay from Jesse Collins Entertainment, who briefed reporters after the telecast with Jen Neal, executive vice president of live events and specials at NBCUniversal.
The SVU sketch was one of the first ideas raised when Hargitay met her Emmy writers, the producers said. Her writing team was led by Ariel Dumas from The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Harmon described Swift and Hargitay as genuine friends, and producers said they wanted from the first meeting to find something for Swift to do in the show, as reported by Variety.
In the sketch, Swift played a fellow detective trying to decode clues about her own Emmys plans. The joke centred on why she would not be at the ceremony. At one point she turned to camera and said, "Saccharide, Ares, from the vineyard, north or south." Ice-T appeared as Detective Tutuola and Kelli Giddish appeared as Amanda Rollins.
Swift helped shape the piece. Collins said she loved the script and sent back thoughts that were written in. Her notes focused on Easter eggs, the hidden clues she plants for fans, which she wanted to be official and correct. The parody was filmed on the SVU set in New York in late August under tight security, with only a small circle told in advance. Producers said they promised Swift they would keep it secret for weeks.
The biggest secret was saved for the final shot. Swift appeared holding her real cat, Olivia Benson, alongside Hargitay. Including the cat was Swift's idea, proposed the night before filming. Neal said Swift has watched almost every episode of SVU and named her cat after Hargitay's character.
Swift was not in the room for the broadcast. She spent Emmy night at the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Denver Broncos to support Travis Kelce, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She had five nominations tied to her Eras Tour Disney+ documentary projects, including best variety special (pre-recorded), meaning a special filmed before broadcast, for Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour: The Final Show. That prize went to The Muppet Show at the Creative Arts Emmys, the separate ceremony for craft and guest awards held the week before.
The rest of the telecast ran tight. It finished three minutes before its 11 p.m. ET cutoff. New York Knicks player Jalen Brunson appeared in the cold open, meaning the opening scene before the titles, through Hargitay's contacts. Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey presented the final prize, best comedy series, to Widow's Bay, which also took a historic number of trophies for a comedy in a single year. Harrelson and McConaughey will co-star in the upcoming Apple TV series Brothers, their joint return to television after 2014's True Detective.
What makes this stand out is the planning. A pop star, a cat, two SVU regulars and a basketball player all fitted into a host-driven show that still ended early. For fans, this means the sketch lives on: the Television Academy has posted it as "SVU Skit: 78th Emmys" for replay.
