Mariska Hargitay made the 2026 Emmy Awards a night to remember — beginning with a slightly familiar opening monologue.
“I am truly deeply moved and so incredibly grateful to be in a room full of people who have dedicated their lives to telling stories,” Hargitay, 62, said at the beginning of the Monday, September 14, awards show, pretending to get emotional. “Since the beginning of time, humans have gathered around the light to tell stories. Back then, it was the fire in the cave and now it’s the screen of your choice.”
She continued, “But, no matter how you watch, and even though we’re worlds apart, we still hold a bit of that communal life. And, at the end of the day, we come to TV for magic, to laugh, to cry, to care because we need that, all of us, that indescribable feeling that we get when the lights begin to dim, dazzling images on the silver screen, sound that I can feel.”
Hargitay’s speech parodied nominee Nicole Kidman‘s now-viral AMC commercial, which starts with the line, “We come to this place for magic.”
“No, Mariska, come on,” Kidman, 59, chimed in, interrupting the monologue. “That’s mine. That’s my bit, you can’t do that.”
Hargitay, however, jokingly refused to stop her version, adding, “Zip it, movie lady! It’s TV’s turn tonight!”
Hargitay hosted the Emmys, held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, for the first time on Monday. She’s the first woman to host television’s biggest night in 15 years.
“Bringing important stories into the light has been the heartbeat of my career,” the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star said in a July statement. “It’s my great honor to host the 78th Emmy Awards — in the 100th birthday year of my beloved NBC — and celebrate this extraordinary community of storytellers.”
She continued at the time, “Whether it’s an actor or a director, a costumer or a sound designer, we are all so privileged to take part in creating television that unites us. Regardless of how, where or when we watch, we are together in our laughter, our tears, our love of stories — and our delighted anticipation to see what happens next.”
Hargitay is a three-time Emmy winner herself, first taking home the trophy for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series in 2006 for her role as Detective Olivia Benson on SVU. She earned two more awards during the 2026 Creative Arts Emmys earlier this month: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special and Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program, both for My Mom Jayne. (Hargitay’s directorial debut chronicled her relationship with her late mother, actress Jayne Mansfield.)
“I’m utterly overwhelmed, as you can imagine,” Hargitay said in her September 5 acceptance speech. “I just wanted to share with you that it took me a while when I decided to make this film during the pandemic [in 2020], and then I started in 2022. It took me a while to realize that this was my story to tell. I didn’t think that I could direct it, and so I just want to add something to Gloria [Steinem]’s pointer and that is about telling your own story.”
The feminist icon, who died earlier in September at age 92, had urged viewers to “tell your own story” in her Famous Last Words interview, which was filmed in February 2025 and aired following her death.
“I just want that invitation to go out, especially to women,” Hargitay tearfully added. “I’m so excited to explore and to discover and to innovate new ways of hearing stories from half the world’s population because we don’t hear from you nearly enough. And I can’t wait to get to know you. Thank you, this is meaningful.”
