Mariska Hargitay Roasted ‘Lioness’ Star Nicole Kidman With Her Own Viral Ad, and Kidman Loved It
Hosting an awards show comes with an almost impossible task: opening with something fresh enough to grab a room full of people who’ve sat through decades of these monologues. Most hosts lean on safe jokes about the nominees or gentle jabs at the industry, hoping something lands before the actual trophies start getting handed out.
This year’s Emmy ceremony took a different approach entirely, built around a host who’s spent nearly three decades playing the same beloved character and was finally stepping into a completely new role. The buzz heading into the night centered as much on who was hosting as on who might win.
Mariska Hargitay opened the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards by turning one of the internet’s most parodied advertisements into her own comedic weapon, and the audience member she borrowed it from happened to be sitting right in the room. Hargitay recreated Nicole Kidman’s now-legendary AMC Theatres ad almost word for word, complete with dramatic lighting and the same trembling delivery that made the original go viral back in 2021.
As Hargitay leaned into lines like “that indescribable feeling we get when the light begins to dim, dazzling images on the silver screen,” the camera cut straight to Kidman in the audience, who broke character to call it out herself. “Mariska, no. That’s my bit… you can’t do that,” Kidman said, playfully interrupting the bit as it unfolded live.
Nicole Kidman calls out Mariska Hargitay for recreating her AMC ad at the #Emmys:
— Pop Base (@PopBase) September 15, 2026
“Mariska, no. That’s my bit… you can’t do that”
“Zip it movie lady… It’s TV’s turn tonight” pic.twitter.com/672Gea3486
Hargitay didn’t miss a beat. “Zip it, movie lady, it’s TV’s turn tonight,” she fired back, according to Rolling Stone’s coverage of the ceremony, cementing the moment as one of the night’s most quoted exchanges. Kidman, who was nominated as an executive producer, reportedly took the ribbing with visible delight rather than any actual offense.
The exchange capped off an opening segment that had already leaned heavily into spectacle, starting with a pre-taped video of Hargitay singing a parody version of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” retitled “I Love TV Screens,” with lyrics rewritten to nod at this year’s nominees. The bit featured cameos from New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson and Jennifer Coolidge, setting an unusually high-energy tone before Hargitay even reached the podium.
The hosting gig itself marked a significant milestone, making Hargitay the first woman to host the Emmys solo since Jane Lynch took on the role back in 2011. She addressed that history directly in her monologue, admitting she’d been given two pieces of advice before agreeing to host: “Number one, don’t do it, and number two, whatever you do, don’t go for sincerity.” She followed that with a dry acknowledgment that she’d ignored the first piece entirely.
Much of the rest of Hargitay’s opening leaned on her twenty-seven-year run playing Olivia Benson on ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,’ including a joke about never actually having a series finale to properly pronounce. She also took a swing at ‘Law & Order’ creator Dick Wolf, joking that his “real name” was something far more scandalous than the one audiences know him by.
Between the Kidman callback, the musical opener, and the self-deprecating jabs at her own decades-long TV career, Hargitay’s monologue set an unexpectedly playful tone for a night that would go on to deliver plenty of history-making wins elsewhere.
What did you think of Mariska Hargitay roasting Nicole Kidman at the Emmys?
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