Mariska Hargitay to Remain on Law & Order: SVU In Every Episode This Season

Phew! I don’t know about you, but I was worried there for a minute. I kept hearing rumors that Mariska Hargitay was significantly cutting back on her hours at Law & Order: SVU and that Detective Olivia Benson would be reduced to a nominal recurring role. I am glad to hear today that, as it turns out, those original reports were not entirely accurate.

According to Entertainment Weekly, “[Mariska Hargitay] is still cutting back to spend more time with her family, and the show will still feature two new detectives in Danny Pino and Kelli Giddish, but an NBC spokesperson says Hargitay will still appear in every episode. Just not, perhaps, in almost every scene as she sometimes has in the past.” Ok, I can live with that. I still get to tune in to see Olivia Benson kick some ass every week on SVU, just not in every scene, and I can’t blame the mother of two. As a mother of a two year old, I feel Mariska Hargitay’s pain. I’m always craving more time with my family.

Hollywood.com shares my allegiance to Mariska Hargitay’s character, and like me, they are also grieving the loss of Chris Meloni on SVU, writing, “I pity any duo that takes the place of Stabler and Benson,” referring to knew detectives on the block that will be played by actors Kelly Giddish and Danny Pino.

Either way, I’m excited to tune in this fall to see how things play out on my favorite crime drama.