Law & Order: Criminal Justice System Host Discusses Franchise Appeal

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi is proud to be part of the culture of ever-changing attitudes in law enforcement as a former district attorney in Brooklyn, one of the largest district attorney offices in the country. She shared her two decades of experience and learned that she had a knack for storytelling from her many years in the media. After retiring from law enforcement, she joined their ranks as the host of Discovery’s True beliefcurrently in its third season, and the true crime podcast Anatomy of MurderHer latest venture is something of a dream come true as a fan-turned-host in the latest from Wolf Entertainment and their partnership with iHeartRadio in Law and Order: Criminal Justice System. Distinctive from the others Fat Wolf series counterparts, CJS delves into season-long stories on topics such as the season one story of how a younger generation of law enforcement officers at every level helped take down the American Mafia in New York City starting in 1979. Nicolazzi spoke with Bleeding Cool about whether she feels a certain type of case gets neglected in the true crime format, whether pop culture has influenced her career in law enforcement, and which character from the franchise she feels is most like her.

Cr: Discovery & iHeartRadio

Law & Order Criminal Justice System Host Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi on Which Character in the Show Is Most Like Her

Bleeding Cool: Is there a type of case that you feel doesn’t get enough attention or is generally neglected?

I think that’s started to change. It used to be, “Who’s the innocent victim and what do they look like?” That’s not what it’s all about. It’s about what’s happened to different people from all walks of life in all circumstances. It’s all these unresolved cases that haven’t gotten enough attention over the years, where families are waiting for answers and victims are waiting for accountability, but that’s started to change as people realize that. We’ve evolved as a system, and the public and their interest in all of this. A lot of that is changing, and if you had asked me 10 or 15 years ago, I would have said, “Domestic violence and crimes that happen within the family and crimes against children are ignored in many ways.” That’s not the case anymore, maybe in some places in certain cases, but more and more people are realizing that you have to address all of these issues to try to find all of the ongoing abuse.



Was there anything pop culture related to books, movies, or TV, like “Law & Order” that influenced your career and maybe led you to your career as a prosecutor? Do you feel like programming represents the process well enough, or are there things missing?

I wasn’t influenced by what I saw in the media or entertainment. Entertainment media is more influenced by what they see in the actual courtrooms and what’s happening on the ground. I loved ‘Law & Order’ long before I worked in media because that was my ‘wind down time.’ At the end of those long days, I would eat my dinner and watch ‘Law & Order,’ because they were always on back to back. I like that I see my world in a Hollywood format that is realistic enough to live. I felt good about how it was portrayed.

We used to watch to see if our cases were featured on “Law & Order,” which was always fun for us coming from New York City. The things that aren’t featured are the things that don’t hold the audience’s interest. When you listen to it on a podcast or watch it on TV, the countless hours that you spend in the office or doing all the tasks is like watching paint dry, but you have to do the job to do it right. All the hundreds of pages that you have to read to understand your case, all the phone records that you go through, and Hollywood has never been able to capture that because it’s an important aspect of the system that’s not as exciting to watch.

Which character from the ‘Law & Order’ universe is most similar to you in personality?

That’s interesting, because I was always drawn to Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston). After all, he was one of the reasons I fell in love with the show. Even though he came from a different era of DA than mine, it was still much more of a man’s world than it is now. Mariska Hagerty’s character Olivia Benson emphasizes female empowerment in something that’s important to me. I love teaching or speaking to young students, or girls in particular, showing them that they can be anything. People used to say, “You don’t look like a homicide prosecutor.” I don’t know what a homicide prosecutor is supposed to look like, but I was one. (Benson) evolving into being seen for the person she is and the skills she has, instead of the girl in the room who was allowed in the boys’ club, is something I felt when I was younger, but that’s changed today.

New episodes of Law and Order: Criminal Justice System will be released on Thursday on iHeartRadio. Watch the first episode below.