Mariska Hargitay Says She's 'Still Floating' From Taylor Swift and
Mariska Hargitay

LOS ANGELES — The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards delivered plenty of fan-favorite wins Monday night at the Peacock Theater, but the broadcast itself drew a decidedly mixed reaction from critics, who pointed to an uneven mix of standout speeches, awkward bits and at least one significant production stumble during the three-hour ceremony.

Host Mariska Hargitay, making history as the first woman to lead the Emmys in 15 years, opened the show with a musical parody of Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," rewritten as "I Love TV Screens" and performed alongside dancers wearing television sets on their heads. The number, which packed in cameos including NBA star Jalen Brunson and actress Jennifer Coolidge, drew criticism across multiple outlets for its corny lyrics and dated pop culture references aimed at older celebrities like Martin Short and Dick Wolf. Reviewers largely agreed the bit fell flat despite Hargitay's evident effort and game energy throughout the night.

The show found firmer footing once it moved into its acting categories, with producer Jesse Collins drawing praise for front-loading the broadcast with a rapid run of major acting awards to keep viewers engaged early. That stretch delivered one of the night's most talked-about speeches, courtesy of "Widow's Bay" writer Katie Dippold, who won for the show's writing and used her time at the podium to describe, in detail, exactly where she intends to display her trophy. "No one will ever step foot in my home without seeing this," Dippold said. "I will create a system of mirrors so that no matter where you stand in my home, this is going to be in your direct eyeline."

Not every moment landed as smoothly. A production error left five-time Emmy winner Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, forced to ad-lib for a stretch after the teleprompter text was sized incorrectly ahead of his acceptance of the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. Fox recovered to deliver an emotional speech about his foundation's advocacy work and his own journey with the disease, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd. Reflecting on going public with his diagnosis years earlier, Fox told the audience, "Because you stood up for me, I kept doing what love... I didn't have to surrender to it," a line that reviewers singled out as one of the night's most powerful, teleprompter mishap notwithstanding.

Elsewhere in the broadcast, the cast of the new "Baywatch" reboot drew groans while presenting the award for Outstanding Reality Competition Program, using the moment to plug their own show's tagline promising "more action and less fabric" than the original series, a beat critics panned as an awkward, self-promotional detour. A later musical segment, in which Hargitay was joined by actor Andrew Rannells to bid farewell to shows wrapping up this year, including "Hacks," "The Bear," "Euphoria" and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," similarly failed to win over critics, who described the number as another low point in a broadcast already carrying two musical missteps.

Standards and practices drew its own share of criticism after censors bleeped comedian John Mulaney mid-joke during his time on stage, a moment several outlets flagged as an unnecessary intrusion on one of the night's more reliably funny presenters.

The ceremony also leaned into an extended bit built around pop star Taylor Swift's fan base, with a pre-taped sketch spoofing the elaborate, conspiracy-style theorizing "Swifties" are known for applying to the singer's public appearances and lyrics. Hargitay later rattled off a string of seemingly random words, "saccharide, Aries, from the vineyard, north or south," widely read as a wink to that same fan culture and an invitation for online sleuths to start decoding it in real time. The bit closed with Hargitay and Swift sharing a silent, deadpan moment on camera while flanking a fluffy cat, a moment several critics singled out as one of the night's better comedic beats, redeeming an otherwise shaky Swift-centered segment.

Other scattered highlights included actress Emilia Clarke delivering a portion of her presenting duties in High Valyrian, the fictional language she spoke on "Game of Thrones," and comedian Marcello Hernández drawing laughs with a bit in which he invited Harrison Ford, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac and Matthew McConaughey to an imagined dinner party. "Widow's Bay" actress Kate O'Flynn also earned a warm reception backstage after dedicating her Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series win to, as she put it, "all the Patricias out there," a nod to her character on the show.

The night's acceptance speeches carried their own emotional throughlines beyond the show's bigger scripted segments. Actor Tom Pelphrey's win for "Task" led to a widely shared moment with his real-life partner, actress Kaley Cuoco, watching from the audience. Backstage, "Widow's Bay" star Matthew Rhys and creator Katie Dippold appeared genuinely overwhelmed following the show's strong night, with Rhys becoming the first male performer in Emmy history to win two lead-acting trophies in a single ceremony.

Hargitay's hosting turn had its own lighter preamble days before the ceremony, when she joined producers to help roll out the red carpet at a press preview event and hit a snag mid-rollout. "Hold up, wardrobe malfunction! Better now than at the Emmys," she called out at the time, later describing her reaction to the mishap: "I started going into full-on Knicks-mode, kicking the carpet. I was a superhero," adding that she considered the moment good luck heading into the main event.

Taken together, critics landed on a familiar verdict for a live, three-hour awards broadcast: strong when it let its winners speak, shakiest during its scripted musical interludes, and occasionally unpredictable in between, with Fox's unplanned recovery from a teleprompter error standing out as the night's most unexpectedly moving moment amid an otherwise uneven ceremony.