The 78th Emmys pulled off the ultimate cameo as it welcomed Taylor Swift for a meta “Law & Order: SVU” sketch alongside host Mariska Hargitay — a collaboration that telecast producers revealed came up not too long after Hargitay was selected as a host.
“It was always in the first meeting we wanted to come up with something for Taylor to do,” Jesse Collins told press just minutes after the show ended on Monday, with EP Dionne Harmon adding, “She was like, ‘Let me get Tay Tay.’” “They had their whole conversation about [how] she was gonna make it great and comfortable … for her,” Collins said to a group of reporters, including TheWrap.
“If you’re gonna do [an ‘SVU’ sketch] … we all felt like you have to one-up what everyone’s thinking, and I can’t think of anything better than to throw Taylor in an ‘SVU’ sketch,” EP Jeannae Rouzan-Clay said.
Swift sparked to the sketch idea — whose writing was headed up by several writers from “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” — but, in the popstar’s true fashion, wanted to ensure all of the “SVU” Easter Eggs made it in. “She wanted it to be really official,” Clay said.
The sketch was shot on the “SVU” set in New York in late August, but getting the other Olivia Benson — Swift’s cat named after Hargitay’s character — was a last-minute idea from Swift. “The night before, she’s like, ‘What if I put the cat in the scene?’ And we were like ‘That would be awesome,’” Collins said. “And the cat delivered,” Harmon added.
The EPs only told a “small group” about Swift’s cameo in the hopes of keeping it under wraps until the show. “This was Mariska’s friend … we made a promise to Taylor that we would keep it under wraps and [when you] make a promise to Captain Benson …”
Monday’s show also welcomed several A-listers to pay tribute to the performers lost this year, a mounting list which now includes Dolly Parton, Catherine O’Hara, Tim Curry, Hayden Panettiere, Rob Reiner and James Burrows. What came together first was the tribute for O’Hara from her TV children, with Noah Kahan singing the In Memoriam to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
“We worked with him in July on another show with NBC, and he was incredible,” Clay said. “We only got to have him on a pre-tape for that show, and so we thought he was the perfect voice for this, and he really delivered.”
But for Reba McEntire’s tribute to Parton, McEntire was the one to select the song, “Appalachian Memories.” McEntire even wore Parton’s ring during the Emmys performance thanks to Parton’s family.
“We were fortunate enough to for Reba to agree … she’s shooting her show right now, but she made time to shoot it,” Collins said. “It’s a beautiful story behind that record. It’s a beautiful record.”
The In Memoriam came after the emotional presentation of the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award to Michael J. Fox, offering back-to-back emotional moments for viewers. “I think the science behind opening with guys with TVs on their heads — you’ve got to wait a little bit before you get to the emotion,” Collins joked, referencing Hargitay’s rendition of “I Love TV Screens.”
“Even in delivering the emotional pieces, it was nice that there was some levity, like even in Macaulay’s and in Dan’s speeches for Catherine … it was emotion-filled, but there were moments that really spoke to the people that they knew,” Clay said. “You can tell when they’re what we like to call arranged marriages, and you just put someone on stage, and I think the blessing is that … all of these moments really genuinely connected organically, and they came together organically.”
While the Emmys are known for running past their three-hour broadcast timeslot, this year, on NBC and Peacock, the show was running about five minutes ahead of time prior to the reveal of the last category. But the producers trusted presenters Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson to stretch out those last couple minutes. “You just know that they’re going to do what they do,” Collins said.
The extra time was a result of the TV Academy cutting seven categories from Monday’s primetime Emmys and moving them to last week’s Creative Arts Emmys.
“It gave Mariska some time to have some fun too, and breathe with some of those moments, and we didn’t have to rush people off the stage,” Clay said.
That said, the producers told nominees ahead of time that should they win, they’ll have a 45-second clock begin ticking right away. “People respected it. People drifted a little bit, but … we knew we were doing good on time, and I think the room just had a great energy … at least that’s what it felt like from where we were.”
Like in previous years, nominees also had the option to pre-submit names they wanted to thank should their name get called. “Not everybody turns in their list, but if they do, we put it up,” Harmon said. “Some people don’t want to forget. It’s not about time. It’s about not forgetting.”
John Mulaney even stuck to time with his short stand-up bit, during which NBC partially bleeped out his reference to DJ Khaled’s infamous line, “real men don’t go down on their wives.” “When you’re broadcasting [to] audiences at home and you want a family-friendly environment, there’s just different [standards and practices],” Jen Neal, EVP, Live Events & Specials, NBC & Peacock, said of the bleep.
“We were in a pretty good space of knowing what he was doing. We were working through it,” Collins said. “He stuck to time, and which was great … and he delivered. It was a great moment … [and] maybe people go to the library, check out the book.”
The producers said their favorite part of the show was Hargitay, who they noted pulled off vocal sessions for the opening number, shooting pre-tapes and preparing for the live show “all while actively shooting her show.”
“She did not have a break from ‘SVU,’” Harmon said. “When Mariska signed on, she said, ‘If I do this, I want it to be the best Emmys ever,’ so she was so committed, and she gave her all.”
And Neal didn’t shut down the possibility of Hargitay returning to host the Emmys in the future. “She can do what she wants to do — she’s so wildly talented, and we were just thrilled with how she was tonight, and through the process leading up to, and who she is for the NBC family,” Neal said. “She was a dream for a host and for all of us to work with … she is like a triple threat. She has so much range of all the things she could do, and I was glad that she had the opportunity to showcase that to audiences at home tonight and see her in a different way.”
The 78th Emmys are now streaming on Peacock.
The post Emmys Producers Tell All on That Taylor Swift Cameo, Catherine O’Hara and Dolly Parton Tributes and More appeared first on TheWrap.
