It’s hard to believe that Mariska Hargitay has been playing Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU for 27 years now, as Season 28 is set to hit the 2026 TV schedule in October. She’s become synonymous with the show (whether she likes it or not), but there was a point in time when things were a little more up in the air. Christopher Meloni was No. 1 on the call sheet for the first 12 seasons of the NBC procedural, and Hargitay recalled how her role changed after he left.
Christopher Meloni played Elliot Stabler on Law & Order: SVU from the show’s 1999 premiere until 2011. During that time, he was the de facto leader as No. 1 on the call sheet — a role that Ice-T said they were happy to relinquish to him — but it was Mariska Hargitay who stepped up after Meloni’s exit. Ice-T told Variety:
Chris was No. 1; Mariska was No. 2. Chris had notes on every scene, and he was kind of in charge. When you have somebody like that on the set, everybody else is comfortable. ‘I’ll let you do it. Less work for me!’ When Chris left, Mariska took that spot.
It’s tricky when any series continues after losing its main character, and I’d imagine that’s especially true when that character is part of an established duo as close as Benson and Stabler were. So there must have been a massive amount of pressure on Mariska Hargitay to continue without her on-screen partner. She recalled the uncertainty of those times, saying:
I wasn’t as vocal. It was a question for everybody: Can she hold the show? Can she lead the show? Nobody knew.
It turns out Mariska Hargitay had been planning to scale back her own role on SVU to appear in only about half of the episodes. Instead, however, she went in the opposite direction and embraced the leadership opportunity. She continued:
It was one of those moments of stepping up. And sometimes you don’t step up until there’s a space.
Mariska Hargitay continues to be No. 1 on the call sheet to this day, even if Olivia Benson is starting to make retirement comments. She and Christopher Meloni have even reunited on-screen, mending what was reportedly a painful break for Hargitay.
Christopher Meloni returned to Law & Order: SVU in 2021 before leading his own spinoff series Law & Order: Organized Crime, on which Mariska Hargitay joined him for 14 episodes of its five-season run.
We may not know how much longer SVU will last, but Mariska Hargitay has more than proven that she was capable of stepping into that role of being in charge 15 years ago. You can see more of Olivia Benson when Law & Order: SVU Season 28 premieres at 9 p.m. ET Thursday, October 8, on NBC and streaming the next day with a Peacock subscription.
