The co-creators of Hacks have known all along how they wanted to end the show.
But that didn’t make it any easier to actually cross that finish line.
“It is hard to say we’re going to voluntarily end the show when so many comedies don’t even get the chance to get off the ground,” says Paul W. Downs, who plays the show’s beleaguered manager, Jimmy, and co-created the series alongside Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky. “That was certainly something we discussed, but also, we never want to tread water. In the true philosophy of Deborah Vance, we wanted to leave them laughing and wanting more.”
An Emmy winner for best comedy series for its third season, and owner of multiple Emmys — including four best comedy actress wins thus far for star Jean Smart, a best supporting actress trophy for costar Hannah Einbinder, multiple writing wins for Aniello, Downs and Statsky and a directing victory for Aniello — Hacks stuck its landing when the series finale aired in May, including paying off multiple Easter eggs hidden throughout the five-season run. (Remember in season three when Smart’s Deborah tells Einbinder’s Ava that unless she’s been to Paris, she’s never eaten real bread? Ava goes to Paris and gets to eat real bread in the finale — and confirms Deborah’s worldview.)
The final episode garnered multiple Emmy nominations, including writing and directing, as part of the HBO Max show’s record-breaking 24 total nominations — the most ever for a comedy series in a single year, besting the previous mark of 23 held by The Bear in 2024 and The Studio in 2025. On today’s episode of Prestige Junkie podcast, I caught up with Aniello, Downs and Statsky as they processed that overwhelming tally and what it really means: that so many of the collaborators who made the show with them, going back to 2019, are getting the recognition they deserve.
Take Ariel Karlin, for example. “She started out in season one as a writer’s assistant on our show, and she is now in season five at a producer level and was just nominated for her first Emmy,” says Aniello, who is also nominated alongside Statsky and Downs as a producer and writer as well as individually for directing the final episode. The best part of these Emmy nominations, Aniello continues, “is people who you know are so talented finally being able to be recognized by the Academy or their peers. That is indescribably joyous.”
The Hacks creators, understandably, refused to choose favorites among their Emmy nominations — Smart could win her fifth Emmy for the show in September, while Einbinder is favored to take her second. But I did ask, pushing them about the show’s first-ever nomination in outstanding original music and lyrics for the Spanish-language “Mis Figuritas.” Part of Deborah’s brief attempt to win an EGOT by competing in the (real!) Grammy category of regional Mexican music, including Tejano, the song is really best experienced if you see it for yourself:
“As we were breaking out season five, it was making us laugh so hard to think of Deborah earnestly and seriously telling everyone that she was gonna EGOT,” says Statsky, who credits the show’s longtime composers, Carlos Rafael Rivera and David Stal, for taking the idea and running with it. “They made a wonderful, hopefully award-winning song.”
Hear much more from the Hacks team on today’s episode of the podcast, which also includes a conversation between me and Reece Feldman — aka Guy with a Movie Camera — as we look ahead to the release of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Reece was on the set of the film in Iceland as well as at the London premiere and has an insider’s look at what makes Nolan’s films so distinctive for fans, how The Odyssey lives up to the hype and a spoiler-free guide to some of the film’s biggest highlights. Much more on The Odyssey on next week’s episode once I’ve actually seen it!
