All The Crossover Shows Where Mariska Hargitay Appeared As Olivia Benson

"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" has been on the air for a record-breaking 23 seasons, and leading lady Mariska Hargitay has been there for all of them. In fact, her role, Olivia Benson, is the longest-running character on any "Law & Order" series. "I am so grateful and in love with this character that I am so blessed to play," Hargitay told E! News. "This character is to me heroic and something that our culture needed, somebody who fought for women and who elevated women's voices and who bears witness to such pain and there is great healing in that," adding, "I feel very privileged and blessed to have grown in this character and get to affect as many people as I have been privileged to affect in my life."

And fans love Benson just as much as her portrayer. In fact, a 2015 survey found that she is the most favorite female character on television (per Washington Post). So when Benson shows up on the other Dick Wolf crime dramas in the NBC lineup, it is always a big deal.

Olivia Benson showed up on the original "Law & Order" for the first time in 2000 in the episode "Entitled," where she helped her fellow detectives investigate a murder (per IMDb). She then showed up in two episodes in 2005. While Benson didn't crossover anytime after that, fans can hold out hope that their favorite Captain might show up in a future episode. "Law & Order" ran for 20 seasons before it was canceled in 2010. But in a surprise twist, NBC renewed the show a 21st season, which is set to air on Feb. 24, 2022. "There are very few things in life that are literally dreams come true," creator Dick Wolf (via Deadline). "This is mine."

Fan favorites Sam Waterston and Anthony Anderson are slated to return, as well as new faces Camryn Manheim playing Lieutenant Kate Dixon, according to Deadline, Hugh Dancy as an assistant district attorney, and Jeffrey Donovan as an NYPD detective. And Wolf has promised that fans can look forward to the same premise for the show. "There's really nothing to fix, we just want to continue telling great stories," he told Variety.

Olivia Benson showed up on "Law & Order: Trial by Jury" in a 2005 episode that also featured a young Bradley Cooper (per IMDb). The show, which focused on the New York City district attorney's office, featured cast members Bebe Neuwirth, Scott Cohen and Kirk Acevedo, as well as notable guest stars such as Candice Bergen, Peter Coyote, and Lorraine Bracco. In the episode "Day," Benson — along with her partner Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) — works with the DA's office to get a serial rapist off the streets. Alfred Molina plays the accused rapist, while Angela Lansbury is his wealthy mom and Cooper is the attorney defending him at trial.

Unfortunately, "Trial by Jury" ran for only one season before getting axed by NBC. "The ratings performance of the show was inconsistent and ultimately disappointing," then-NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly told Entertainment Weekly. "Over the last number of runs, the show wasn't winning its time period."

Olivia Benson hopped a flight to the Windy City to help the Intelligence Unit solve several cases on "Chicago P.D." She appeared on single episodes in 2014, 2015 and 2016, including a "P.D." crossover episode with "Chicago Fire" in 2015 (per IMDb). And it wasn't all about solving crime: Some fans were hoping things between Benson and Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) might get romantic (spoiler alert: they didn't). "In terms of chemistry, I get why people liked it," SVU executive producer Warren Leight told Entertainment Weekly. "They have good chemistry together."

Beghe also confirmed that there was a lot of affection between his character and Benson. "There's a great deal of warmth, respect, and I will use the word love between them, but that's a word that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people," the actor said. "There's probably 8 billion definitions of that word and 8 billion variations of it, but they care. I think it's like coming home being together."

The most exciting crossover for Olivia Benson, according to diehard fans, are her episodes on "Law & Order: Organized Crime" because it reunites her with former partner Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni). Since "Organized Crime" premiered in 2021, she has already appeared in eight episodes (per IMDb), and more are sure to come. Viewers can't get enough of Benson and Stabler together again, and Hargitay and Meloni are happy to be working together again. "It's such a cliché ... I got on the stage of the 'SVU' set and it has changed. They have different actors and it's not my house, it's not my place, so I had no connection. But as soon as I got to act with Mariska, it was like yesterday," Meloni told Jimmy Fallon (via People). We know each other and mess around socially and all that, but when we got down and cameras were rolling ... it was such a seamless, effortless endeavor. It was great."

Hargitay agrees, saying the reunion has "been a joy. One of the, I think, biggest compliments that I received and I receive still is, 'I like it best when there's no words, when you guys are just looking at each other, because I feel it all.' I think we're pretty locked in and dialed into each other. And so that's been a joy and a pleasure to find," she explained to Variety.