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:
