I have to hand it to Mariska Hargitay, who is daring enough to lay it all out there as the host of the Emmys, which you can follow along with us on our Emmys live blog, celebrating all the 2026 TV schedule (and part of 2025) has to offer. The opening song, a satire of Pat Benetar’s “I Love Rock and Roll,” was, if I’m honest, a little cringe, as the kids would say.
Yet, Hargitay leaned into it and made it all work. By the time she hit the stage for the monologue, she brought it all together with some great jokes about her boss at Law & Order: SVU, Dick Wolf, and fellow Emmy winner Nicole Kidman, who took the brunt of the shots fired from the stage. This wasn’t a roast in the style of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler at the Golden Globes, but the jokes still landed.
Dick Wolf Isn’t His Real Name
The opening number, a celebration of all the biggest shows of the year in a song called “I Love TV Screens,” gave shout-outs to some of the biggest hits of the year, including DTF St. Louis, Hacks, Beef, and more. It wasn’t the best opening number I’ve ever seen, but as I said, Hargitay made it work with her confidence and charisma. The monologue also leaned into her strengths. She didn’t spend 10 minutes taking shots at everyone in the room as you might expect from a comedian or talk show host.
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That doesn’t mean she didn’t get her jabs in. She even added a little self-deprecating humor, opening with a joke about how long she’s been on SVU and how many actors in the audience she’s arrested on the show. Hargitay also wondered how to pronounce the word “finale” because she’s never had one. She saved the biggest cut for the show’s legendary producer, Dick Wolf:
And I’ve got to say, you know, over the years, there’s been a lot of jokes about his name, which is so unfair, because Dick Wolf isn’t even his real name. His real name is Richard Penis.
Really, that was it for the jabs, save one big target: Nicole Kidman.
Kidman Was In On It
She saved the only other mockery for the monologue for the great Nicole Kidman and her ubiquitous AMC ads that so many of us have seen before movies. Showing off her acting skills, I really thought Hargitay was getting choked up when talking about all the talent in the room, but it turns out she was just warming up for the joke. Soon it was obvious she was mocking those ads, including the line “Somehow, heartbreak feels good,” which is when Kidman interrupted and called her out, to which Hargitay responded:
Zip it, movie lady, it’s TV’s turn tonight!
It landed perfectly, and I’m glad that was where the monologue ended. It’s all we need as an audience as we watch along, and that can be done with a Peacock subscription.
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