Get Ready For “Mariska Unleashed”: 78th Annual Emmys Host & Producers Tease Telecast At Blue Carpet Rollout

While crews toiled away building out the Peacock Theater ahead of Monday’s 78th annual Emmy Awards, host Mariska Hargitay sparkled in the sun as she rolled out the blue carpet alongside the show’s producers.

She may have spent nearly three decades investigating heinous crimes on NBC’s Law & Order franchise, but she knows how to have fun, too.

“What I’ve done, the material that I’ve been living in, it’s hard and it takes a toll,” she told Deadline on Thursday morning’s carpet rollout and press preview. “So do something completely different, I’m telling you, I count the moments to get in the room with [the Emmys writers], and it’s been soul filling.”

Hargitay is also executive producing the telecast with Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay of Jesse Collins Entertainment. Harmon tells Deadline that Hargitay’s hosting style will be “a complete 180 from Olivia Benson.”

“The show should be called like Mariska Unleashed,” laughed Collins. “That should be like the after-school special [version].”

Hargitay is the first woman to helm the show in 15 years. She’s also a departure from the typical choice for an awards show host in that she’s primarily a drama actress rather than a late-night host or stand-up comic. Recent Emmys hosts include Nate Bargatze, Eugene and Dan Levy, Anthony Anderson, and Kenan Thompson.

However, the producing team thinks Hargitay isn’t getting enough credit for her comedy chops.

“Everyone’s been saying she’s not a comedian, but I think we feel otherwise,” Rouzan-Clay added. “She’s kind of a comedian.”

The Jesse Collins Entertainment trio also teased a few other moments during the live ceremony, confirming both the Charlie’s Angels and Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunions that were hinted in Wednesday’s presenters announcement.

Collins also revealed that Noah Kahan will perform Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” during the in memoriam.

This year’s ceremony drew some minor heat for cutting some of the acting, writing and directing categories from the main broadcast, instead handing them out during the non-televised ceremony over Labor Day weekend. However, the extra room in the telecast will go toward “letting a lot of things breathe,” Collins said.

“[It’s] really giving our hosts time to truly host the show,” he told Deadline. “But even across the board, presenters have more time. We’re just trying to make it so that the show has a great pace…and really just make the show feel different.”

He adds: “It’s a very tough thing, and the decisions were made, and we think in the end people will see that they were the right choices, and the show will be great.”