Mariska Hargitay earns nearly $850,000 per episode as SVU reaches 600, Variety reports

Mariska Hargitay earns nearly $850,000 per episode as the star and an executive producer of NBC's "Law & Order: SVU," Variety reported Thursday, with the show's 600th episode airing that day.

Hargitay has played Olivia Benson since the series began in 1999; Benson is now a captain. She took over as lead when Christopher Meloni departed in 2011 and has remained at the head of the cast.

Page Six calculated that, at that rate, a 21- to 22-episode season like those of recent years could bring Hargitay $17.85 million to $18.7 million.

Hargitay said she nearly missed the milestone dinner. "I wanted to go home and go to bed," she said. She ultimately joined the current cast and crew, creator Dick Wolf, Wolf Entertainment chief operating officer Peter Jankowski and Meloni at two tables.

"It was one of the most extraordinary, meaningful nights, and unexpectedly so to me," Hargitay said. She recalled Wolf telling the group, "This has never happened, and it will never happen again."

In September, Hargitay won two Emmys for "My Mom Jayne," an HBO documentary about her mother, Jayne Mansfield, that she directed and produced. The following week, she hosted the Emmy show, returned to New York and started filming an "SVU" episode with Jalen Brunson the next day. Episode 600 began production four days after that shoot finished.

Hargitay read her entire dinner toast through tears during her interview with Variety. "Here we are at episode 600, and it really doesn’t feel totally real," the toast said.

She ended the toast by addressing Wolf. "All those years ago, when you sat there with this idea for the show, and you said, ‘Huh, this might work,’ you used your television, your foresight, to look many years in the future," Hargitay said.

Jankowski said, "The difference is that for the last 15 years it has been Mariska’s show. She is the alpha dog now." He told Variety Meloni "will always be a part of the show’s DNA."

NBC Entertainment chairman Pearlena Igbokwe told Variety, "Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson is more than an iconic television character."

Meloni returns as Benson's former partner, Elliot Stabler, in "Obedience," the milestone episode airing Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. Benson and Stabler reopen an old case, with "fun moments when they kind of mirror Mariska and Chris," Hargitay said.

"It’s about a woman having her voice and being submissive or subservient in a way, or giving up our power or our instinct, and that’s an important story to tell," Hargitay said of the episode.

Since departing in 2011, Meloni has returned for several guest spots, including the season 27 premiere. His spinoff, "Law & Order: Organized Crime," was canceled this year, ending its run at five seasons.

In an August 2026 Variety interview cited by Page Six, Hargitay recalled telling former "ER" co-star Julianna Margulies around Season 25 in 2024 that she needed to leave. "I said, ‘I’ve got to leave the show too. I don’t want people to think I’m a one-trick pony,'" Hargitay said, and Margulies replied that ship had sailed.

For comparison, Page Six cited Variety in reporting that Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon each earn $2 million per episode of Apple TV's "The Morning Show," as does Zendaya for "Euphoria." The same account put Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short at $1 million each per episode of Hulu's "Only Murders in the Building." Ellen Pompeo has said she earns $20 million a season for "Grey's Anatomy."

"Obedience" will stream on Peacock the day after its broadcast, Just Jared reported.