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Law & Order: Criminal Justice System Host Discusses Franchise Appeal

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi (Law & Order: Criminal Justice System) spoke with Bleeding Cool about her love for the franchise, feminism, and more.

Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi is proud to be part of the culture of the ever-evolving change of attitudes in law enforcement as a former Brooklyn prosecutor, one of the biggest district attorney offices in the country. Sharing her two decades of experience, she learned she had a knack for storytelling through her many years working with the media. Once she retired from law enforcement, she joined their ranks as host of Discovery's True Conviction, currently in its third season, and the true-crime podcast Anatomy of Murder. Her latest venture is a dream come true of sorts as a fan-turned-host in the latest from Wolf Entertainment and their partnership with iHeartRadio in Law & Order: Criminal Justice System. Differentiating from its other Dick Wolf series counterparts, CJS will dive into season-long narratives of subjects, like season one's take on how a younger generation of law enforcement at every level helped take down the American Mafia in New York City starting in 1979. Nicolazzi spoke to Bleeding Cool about whether she feels a particular type of case gets neglected in the true crime format, if there's a pop culture influence on her career in law enforcement, and what franchise character she feels is most like her.

Law & Order Criminal Justice System Host Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi on What Series Character Is Most Like Her

Bleeding Cool: Is there a type of case you feel probably doesn't have enough coverage or is neglected in general?

I think that has started to change. It used to be the "Who is the innocent victim and what do they look like?" That isn't what it's all about. It is about what happened to different people from all walks of life in all circumstances. It's all the unsolved cases that didn't get enough attention over the years involving families waiting for answers and victims waiting for accountability, but that has started to change as people realize. We evolved as a system, and the public with their interest in all this. A lot of that is changing, and if you'd asked me ten years ago or 15 years ago, I would have said, "Domestic violence cases and crimes that happen within family and crimes against children in many ways ignored." That's not the case anymore, maybe in some places in certain cases, but more are realizing you need to tackle all these to try and ferret out all the ongoing abuse.

Was there anything pop culture related to books, films, or TV, like 'Law & Order' that influenced your career and perhaps guided you to become a prosecutor? Do you feel programming represents the process enough, or are things still missing?

I wasn't influenced by anything I saw in the media or entertainment. Entertainment media is more influenced by what they see in the real courtrooms and what's happening on the ground. I loved 'Law & Order' long before I worked in media because that was my "relaxing moment." At the end of these long days, I'd eat my dinner and watch 'Law & Order' because they'd always be on back-to-back. I like the way I see my world in a Hollywood format that is true enough to life. I felt good about how it was represented.

We used to look to see when our cases were featured on 'Law & Order,' which was always fun for us coming out of New York City. The things not shown are the things that do not capture the public's interest. If you listen to it on a podcast or watch it on television, the countless hours you spend in your office or doing all the types of tasks is like watching paint dry, but you must get the job done to get it done right. All the hundreds of pages you must read to understand your case, all the phone records you go through, and Hollywood's never able to capture that because it is one important aspect of the system that is not so exciting to watch.

What character in the 'Law & Order' universe do you feel personality-wise is most like you?

That's interesting because I was always drawn to Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston). After all, he was part of the reason I fell in love with the show. Although he came from a different era of prosecutor than mine, it was still much more man's world than it has evolved to today. Mariska Hagerty's character of Olivia Benson highlights women's empowerment in something important to me. I love whenever I'm teaching or speaking to young students, or girls particularly, to show them 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 taken for the person she is and the skill set, rather than the girl in the room who was allowed in the boys' club, is something I felt in my earlier years, but that has changed today.

New episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Justice System are released on Thursdays on iHeartRadio. You can check out the first episode below.

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