Mariska Hargitay’s eye-popping Law & Order: SVU salary is revealed as she celebrates 600 episodes

Mariska Hargitay raised eyebrows on Thursday when her massive Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU) salary was revealed.

The 62-year-old Emmy winner has starred as Detective Olivia Benson, now Captain, on SVU for 27 years, going back to its September 1999 premiere.

And in 2014 she added executive producer to her titles beginning with season 15, which increased her pay from the series.

According to a new report in Variety, Hargitay now makes an astounding $850,000 per episode of the popular police procedural.

Aside from a shortened season 25 that was curtailed due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, SVU seasons have aired 21 to 22 episodes in the past five years, meaning that she could expect to earn between $17.85 million and $18.7 million for the current 28th season.

The revelation about Hargitay’s shocking salary comes as NBC prepares to air Law & Order: SVU’s 600th episode on Thursday night.

The Daily Mail has reached out to representatives for Hargitay and NBC for comment but has not yet received a response. 

Hargitay’s huge payday is particularly surprising, as SVU airs longer major network-sized seasons over 20 episodes, while other high-profile series airing on streaming networks and prestige cable channels tend to air much shorter seasons between six and 12 episodes.

By comparison, A-list stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon both allegedly earn $2 million per episode of Apple TV+’s drama The Morning Show, for paydays of $20 million for a 10-episode season.

According to Page Six, Zendaya recently took home $2 million per episode for the third season of Euphoria.

Only Murders in the Building stars Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short reportedly earn $1 million each per episode, with the Hulu comedy airing 10 episodes for each of its five seasons so far.

Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo is one of the most direct comparisons to Hargitay, as she also stars on a major-network series. 

The actress, who, like Hargitay, has led her series through multiple cast shakeups over more than two decades, reportedly earns $20 million per season, with recent seasons consisting of around 18 episodes.

Hargitay gave a toast to SVU and her colleagues at a recent celebration dinner after the show’s 600th episode, and she reread her speech while chatting with Variety. 

‘Here we are at episode 600, and it really doesn’t feel totally real – which in a way is exactly how it should feel, because it’s as if we all get to live in this dream of what you thought might be possible someday,’ the television star began as she started to tear up. ‘And you’ve shown that it’s not only possible, but it’s so much better than anyone could have imagined.’

Despite it being such an important moment for her and the show, Hargitay admitted that she wasn’t keen to attend.

‘I wanted to go home and go to bed,’ she said, though she forced herself to attend, and she found herself at a table with series creator Dick Wolf and her former costar Christopher Meloni, who originally starred as co-lead detective Elliot Stabler.

Meloni, who has made multiple guest appearances on SVU since leaving the series in 2011, will be returning again to join Benson in the 600th episode. 

Despite Hargitay’s reservations, the celebration dinner ended up being ‘one of the most extraordinary, meaningful nights, and unexpectedly so to me.’

‘Dick got up and said, “This has never happened, and it will never happen again.” And everything just landed that night,’ she recalled.

Hargitay also recalled reservations she had in 2024, when SVU was in season 25, about remaining with the show, which she expressed during a conversation with former ER star Julianna Margulies.

‘I said, “I’ve got to leave the show too. I don’t want people to think I’m a one-trick pony.”

But Margulies told her: ‘Sweetheart, that ship’s sailed.’