{"id":78333,"date":"2025-08-18T21:15:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T21:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/78333\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T21:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T21:15:08","slug":"hacks-team-on-late-night-tv-and-impact-on-season-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/78333\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Hacks\u2019 Team On Late-Night TV And Impact On Season 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert was canceled less than two months after Late Night with Deborah Vance suffered a similar fate on HBO Max<\/a>\u2019s Hacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a fate that has not gone unnoticed by the stars and creators of the latter.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat\u2019s happening in late-night happened on the show. Deborah left the show and in the world of Hacks, the franchise ended, so it\u2019s very weird that this is happening with Stephen Colbert right now because a lot of our season [four] was building up to that moment,\u201d Paul W. Downs<\/a>, who is a co-creator and co-showrunner of the series who also plays manager Jimmy, told Deadline. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking at the Deadline Contenders at HBO Max event in Hollywood, Downs added that it\u2019s been a \u201csurreal moment for us, in light of what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch the panel conversation here.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut there\u2019s good news for Jean Smart\u2019s Vance as the show heads into Season 5, which is currently being written. \u201cA lot of our Season 5 is going to be about her sort of reinventing herself and rewriting her legacy after she\u2019s been blamed for the death of late-night,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tDowns was joined at the event by Lucia Aniello<\/a> and Jen Statsky<\/a>, who co-created and co-showrun Hacks, as well as Hannah Einbinder<\/a>, who plays Ava, and Smart, who appeared virtually. The event also included scripts from Hacks as well as music inspired by the series and costumes from the show, which TV Academy voters could peruse in between sessions. There was also a conversation with a number of the below-the-line folk from Hacks including cinematographer Adam Bricker, costume designer Kathleen Felix-Hager, casting director Linda Lowy, production designer Rob Tokarz and editor Susan Vaill.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jean\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(L-R) Jean Smart (on screen), Jen Statsky, Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Hannah Einbinder\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Buckner\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jen\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(L-R) Jen Statsky, Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Buckner\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t‘Hacks’ costumes\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Buckner\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Lucia\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLucia Aniello\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Buckner\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jen\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJen Statsky\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Buckner\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Hannah\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHannah Einbinder\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Buckner\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Paul\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPaul W. Downs\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Buckner\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Susan\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t‘Hacks’ editor Susan Vaill\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Buckner\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the show\u2019s ninth episode, after having a sex-pest movie star on as a guest, Ava leaks the fact that a joke was cut to protect his reputation. This leads Vance to quit live on air in a special post-Oscars episode.<\/p>\n

\n\tAniello said, \u201cWe wanted to explore less so the exact what is late-night in this moment, even though we do explore that, but we really wanted to explore who is Deborah now, hosting late-night. It\u2019s more interesting to explore the relationship with Ava in making this and of course, there is the battle of art, commerce and what happens with Bob Lipka.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have a very optimistic perspective about the industry. What Deborah does in \u2018A Slippery Slope\u2019 \u2014 the ninth episode \u2014 when she leaves late-night, she does it because she wants to fight for an industry that works better for artists, and as a comedian, she doesn\u2019t want to let herself be censored and capitulate to this tech company and her corporate overlords. We try to make it feel aspirational. We wish there were a female late-night host. We wish there was someone who stood up to corporate greed the way that Deborah does. It\u2019s wish fulfillment,\u201d added Downs.<\/p>\n

\n\tSmart said that she loved watching Johnny Carson and Steve Allen host The Tonight Show when she was growing up. \u201cI was very excited when I found it was going to be hosting the late-night show. It\u2019s always something that I thought would be great fun, and for somebody like Deborah, it\u2019s the perfect fit. She has control. She\u2019s running a party. But also, too, because it was something that was unreachable for women, that made it more enticing for her,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\n\tEinbinder\u2019s first entry into the business was doing a stand-up set on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She was also the youngest comedian to ever do a set on the CBS show and was the last onstage set for over a year as a result of the pandemic. \u201cIt was so meaningful. It\u2019s an institution that has meant so much, and it\u2019s such a vehicle for so many artists. We all have people in the comedy community that came up through the late-night systems. It is cool and fun to do it that justice. It was really an honor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn fact, Statsky interned at Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Conan O\u2019Brien before landing a full-time job on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLate Night was my first official comedy writing job. I was 24 years old. I was scared out of my mind and it really forged in fire in terms of how those shows are made. When the three of us starting writing the season, we wanted to pay homage to what it\u2019s like to host a late-night show, what a challenge that is, but also what it\u2019s like to write a late-night show, make your show five days a week. We wanted to show just how hard these shows are to make and how much work goes into it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the season, Einbinder\u2019s Ava quits after finding out that the writers were splurging on fancy lunches, on her dime, but not before throwing a $70 branzino at the window. Statsky was asked who actually hurled the fish. \u201cIt was a different kind of fish,\u201d she joked.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeason 4 is clearly a homage to a genre that is struggling, but it\u2019s also a homage to Los Angeles. Vance\u2019s L.A. home was a house in Altadena that was affected by the wildfires earlier this year, and while some of the season was shot in Singapore and Las Vegas, there\u2019s a lot of L.A., including a memorable plotline about Ava moving into the Americana.<\/p>\n

\n\tStatsky joked, \u201cI spent a lot of time at the Americana. It\u2019s amazing. I\u2019ve always wanted to live there, yeah, because I love the Cheesecake Factory. That\u2019s it, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re fighting for doing this the way we think it should be done. We\u2019re lucky to make the show. We want to keep production here in Los Angeles. We want to keep this city and Hollywood working the way it has been for many years, and we feel lucky to be a part of doing that,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tThe team also paid tribute to some of the fantastic guest stars this season including Julianne Nicholson, who plays a cocaine-snorting TikTok star who gets famous as Dance Mom, except she\u2019s not actually a mother; and Jimmy Kimmel, who kicks off at Vance for attempting to lure Kristen Bell onto her show even though he \u201cgot full custody when Conan died.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSmart was charmed by both. \u201cThey both did performances that we did not see coming. Jimmy, Mr. Nice Guy, was so awful to Deborah and so hilarious and so shocking, that was a riot, and Julianne, no one\u2019s ever seen Julianne like that. She\u2019s amazing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tHacks, which has been renewed for Season 5<\/a>, scored 14 Emmy nominations<\/a> this year including Outstanding Comedy Series, which it won last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series, which also stars Megan Stalter, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Mark Indelicato and Rose Abdoo, along with Dan Bucatinsky, Helen Hunt, Tony Goldwyn, Kaitlin Olson, Jane Adams, Lauren Weedman, Christopher McDonald, Poppy Liu, Lorenza Izzo, Johnny Sibilly, Paul Felder, Polly Draper, Luenell and Aristotle Athari, is produced by Universal Television. It is executive produced by Downs and Aniello via their Paulilu banner, Statsky via First Thought Productions, as well as Michael Schur via Fremulon, David Miner for 3 Arts Entertainment, Morgan Sackett and Joe Mande.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was canceled less than two months after Late Night with Deborah Vance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,59852,134,10664,59853,17300,59854,59855,59856,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-78333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-contenders-hbo-max","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-hacks","13":"tag-hannah-einbinder","14":"tag-hbo-max","15":"tag-jen-statsky","16":"tag-lucia-aniello","17":"tag-paul-w-downs","18":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}