The Television Academy hands out its top honor Monday night, and for the first time in 15 years, a woman will run the show alone. Mariska Hargitay, the "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" star, hosts the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, becoming the first solo female host since Jane Lynch in 2011 and the first non-comedian in the chair since Angela Lansbury in 1993.
The ceremony airs Monday, Sept. 14, at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, with a simultaneous stream on Peacock and access via Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV and Fubo. The Television Academy, a nonprofit made up of more than 27,000 industry professionals across 31 peer groups, will also stream backstage interviews live on Emmys.com and its YouTube channel throughout the broadcast.
Hargitay's selection was announced earlier this year, and she framed the job as an extension of work she has done for decades on screen and off.
Bringing important stories into the light has been the heartbeat of my career. It's my great honor to host the 78th Emmy Awards.
Mariska Hargitay
The contenders
HBO Max's medical drama "The Pitt" arrives as the night's biggest target, leading all series with 25 nominations, 13 of them in acting categories, including a lead actor drama nod for Noah Wyle. Close behind is Hacks, which picked up 24 nominations — a record haul for a comedy series — with Jean Smart nominated for lead actress. Apple TV's "Widow's Bay" trails with 19 nominations, and the sci-fi drama "Pluribus" follows with 18. In the limited-series race, season two of Netflix's "Beef" collected 16 nominations and HBO's dark comedy "DTF St. Louis" 13, according to the full nominations tally published by Deadline.
The spread of nominations across a broadcast medical drama, two streaming comedies and a genre series reflects how thoroughly the old lines between network, cable and streaming television have blurred in the Emmys' voting body over the past several years.
New categories, new honors
Voters this cycle also worked under a revised rulebook. The Television Academy folded the outstanding scripted variety series and outstanding talk series categories into a single outstanding variety series award after both saw a decline in submissions in recent years, and it renamed outstanding television movie to simply outstanding movie. The academy additionally introduced a new Legacy Award, meant to recognize programs with a lasting hold on audiences; "I Love Lucy" is the inaugural recipient, more than 70 years after it left the air.
Hargitay's run at the podium comes with a supporting cast built for a long broadcast: 24 presenters have been announced so far, among them Zendaya, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jon Hamm, Amy Poehler and Florence Pugh, according to NBC's own ceremony preview. Hargitay has spent recent weeks previewing her approach to the gig in interviews, including a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter about why she said yes to the job.
The pairing of host and moment has not gone unremarked in the run-up to Monday. Hargitay has spent 27 seasons playing Olivia Benson on "SVU," television's longest-running live-action prime-time drama, and has built a parallel public profile around advocacy for survivors of sexual assault through the Joyful Heart Foundation, which she founded in 2004. Handing her a solo hosting slot, rather than pairing her with a comedian in the traditional format, is itself being read by television critics as a small break from Emmy tradition.
The Emmys land two days before the calendar turns toward fall premieres, giving Monday's winners an unusually short runway between trophy and new-season promotion. "The Pitt" and "Hacks" are both expected back for new seasons in the coming months, meaning Monday's races will double as an early temperature check on whether either show can repeat.
Whoever wins, the ceremony itself is being watched almost as closely as the categories: a solo woman hosting network television's biggest single night, after a 15-year gap, is itself being treated by industry press as one of the evening's headline storylines.
