{"id":390768,"date":"2026-04-10T00:27:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T00:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/390768\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T00:27:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T00:27:21","slug":"hacks-amazing-race-producers-on-how-their-crossover-episode-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/390768\/","title":{"rendered":"Hacks\/Amazing Race Producers on How Their Crossover Episode Happened"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cHacks<\/a>\u201d fans are about to see the most unlikely TV crossover event of the year. An upcoming episode will be set in the world of iconic reality competition series \u201cThe Amazing Race<\/a>,\u201d fulfilling a longtime dream of the \u201cHacks\u201d producers \u2014 and just in time.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Episode 5 of this final season of \u201cHacks,\u201d \u201cD\u2019Amazing Race,\u201d Deborah (Jean Smart) and her daughter DJ (Kaitlin Olson) wind up on the CBS show as contestants \u2014 running through airports, ripping open clues, taking on challenges, facing detours and battling other contestants, just like they really do on \u201cThe Amazing Race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been wanting Deborah to go on \u2018Amazing Race, and it was always an idea to have Deborah and Ava [Hannah Einbinder] go,\u201d said \u201cHacks\u201d co-creator and exec producer Lucia Aniello. \u201cIt\u2019s something we mentioned in Season 2 when they\u2019re watching \u2018Amazing Race, they like talk about how they would be a good team. And we actually wrote an early draft of this where it was Deborah and Ava. But as the season went on and we were formulating things, we were looking for a really rich Deborah\/ DJ story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s about as true to \u201cAmazing Race\u201d as you can get. Aniello and her fellow \u201cHacks\u201d creators Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky, as well as director Jeff Rosenberg (also an \u201cAmazing Race\u201d superfan), brought the producers behind the iconic CBS reality staple into the process to make sure this felt like the ultimate scripted episode of a real-life reality show.<\/p>\n

\n\tKeeping it authentic, \u201cThe Amazing Race\u201d host\/exec producer Phil Keoghan played himself on the \u201cHacks\u201d episode, and creator\/exec producer Elise Doganieri was also on set throughout production.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was like an out-of-body experience, because I\u2019m so hands on in the field on \u2018Race,\u2019 and I was hands-on here, but we\u2019re dealing now with actors,\u201d Doganieri told Variety. \u201cI dealt with the art department and set designers on the placement of the clue boxes and how the clues are ripped and read. They made sure that the way it was shot was in the reality style and how we would film it \u2014 where the camera crews would stand, and how they would race along the contestants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSaid Statsky: \u201cWe knew if we were really going to do this, it had to be ambitious. Use their people, use their clue boxes. For every episode, you prep like crazy, but this one took so much planning. We didn\u2019t want it to look slapped together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\n\tThat meant even real \u201cAmazing Race\u201d camera operators traveled to the \u201cHacks\u201d set to play themselves. As \u201cHacks\u201d cameras rolled, the \u201cRace\u201d camerapeople ran around sets (including the Ontario Airport, the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and other locales) pretending to shoot Smart, Olson and the other \u201ccontestants\u201d as normal. Of course, this time, their cameras weren\u2019t really working, and instead they were being paid as performers on \u201cHacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe way they move and maneuver and are quietly in a dance with each other, we couldn\u2019t really hire background artists to do that in the same way,\u201d Aniello said. \u201cIt\u2019s really cool to watch people at the top their game do what they do best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDoganieri also made a cameo, playing herself, showcasing what she normally does behind the scenes on a challenge: Keeping tabs on contestants and calling them out when they don\u2019t follow the rules.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was very much like what I would do if there was a rule question, or if somebody was doing something wrong,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then, of course, Phil did all the things that he does on our show. In the script, he was saying what he truly says on \u2018The Amazing Race.\u2019 I know that Lucia and Jen and Paul got a real kick out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cHacks\u201d producers sent the episode scripts to Doganieri and Keoghan so they could make sure the challenges and clues in the episode were written in \u201cAmazing Race\u201d language.<\/p>\n

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

\n\t\u201cAt one point we really wanted Deborah, for example, to be yelling at DJ, and Elise said, \u2018that\u2019s not allowed, so either you take that out, or we have a producer come and say that that\u2019s not allowed,\u2019\u201d Aniello recalled. \u201cAnd we\u2019re like, \u2018guess what Elise, you just accidentally wrote yourself into the show. We\u2019ll have you come and do that.\u2019 We really respect Elise so much. And it was so nice to have her there and feel like she was blessing our work as well. And if you are a big fan of \u2018The Amazing Race,\u2019 then hopefully you feel seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis, of course, is a culmination of a love for \u201cThe Amazing Race\u201d that Aniello first cultivated from a surprising source: Comedian Kevin Hart. A few years before \u201cHacks,\u201d Aniello and Downs wrote a movie for Hart, and for a flashback scene, Hart had an idea: That his character and his wife were contestants on \u201cThe Amazing Race\u201d and had such a massive flameout on the show that after that, they split up.<\/p>\n

\n\tAniello and Downs liked the idea, but had never watched \u201cThe Amazing Race.\u201d So they binged a few seasons for research. Then the pandemic happened, and as the married couple quarantined at home with major wanderlust, they went down a deep \u201cAmazing Race\u201d rabbit hole.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe just pounded season after season of \u2018Amazing Race,\u2019 and very quickly it had nothing to do with the scripts and the Kevin project anymore,\u201d Aniello said. \u201cIt became about loving the show, getting so invested in the storytelling, and the evolution of the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Aniello and Downs became superfans as they were in the midst of creating \u201cHacks\u201d with Jen Statsky \u2014 whom they also turned on to \u201cRace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s why Aniello always knew she wanted to incorporate \u201cThe Amazing Race\u201d into \u201cHacks\u201d somehow. She has said in the past that elements of \u201cHacks\u201d Season 2, when Deborah and Ava hit the road in a tour bus, were inspired by both \u201cRace\u201d and \u201cRoad Rules.\u201d But she yearned to do more.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLucia\u2019s passion for this has never died, and it\u2019s really inspiring,\u201d Statsky said. \u201cAt one point, Lucia was advocating we do an entire \u2018Amazing Race\u2019 season.\u201d (\u201cThat would have been the sixth season of \u2018Hacks,\u2019 by the way,\u201d Aniello quipped. Added Statsky: \u201cWhen people are sad there\u2019s not a sixth season, Lucia tried!\u201d)<\/p>\n

\n\tNow here comes our involvement in all this. Several years ago at one of Variety\u2019s annual showrunner\u2019s dinners (usually held the week before the Emmys), Aniello came up to me with a request: Could I introduce her to \u201cThe Amazing Race\u201d producers?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ve known \u201cRace\u201d creators Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri since the start of \u201cRace\u201d back in 2001, and even had Keoghan attend my \u201cRace\u201d-themed 30th birthday party in 2003<\/a>. At the same time, \u201cHacks\u201d had become one of my signature favorite shows (see my cameo in Season 4<\/a>), so I was happy to oblige bringing the creative forces between two seminal shows together.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey met, and the idea was hatched for a crossover. Van Munster and Doganieri were game. But then a few more years passed, and the idea seemed to have fizzled. Until Last summer, when Aniello emailed me with a request: Could I put her back in touch with Doganieri? Now that \u201cHacks\u201d was ending with Season 5, it was now or never to do that \u201cRace\u201d crossover.<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tKeoghan and Doganieri at the \u201cHacks\u201d Season 5 premiere party on Wednesday<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNext thing you know, we are receiving scripts,\u201d Doganieri said. \u201cShe really wanted to make sure it was authentic to our show, and that they were getting the terminology correct, how the clues were written, how everything would go with the race, detours, roadblocks, what happens within one episode. We supplied them with real race envelopes and things like that. Our department on our side pulled together a bunch of goodies for them, and we just took it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAniello credited Doganieri for doing the leg work in clearing the licensing and the rights to \u201cThe Amazing Race\u201d brand and logo, in addition to all those props and guidance on the scripts.<\/p>\n

\n\tSaid Statsky: \u201cShe put in so much work to do that. It would have been so easy for her to be like, \u2018sorry, we\u2019re not gonna be able to license it,\u2019 or \u2018CBS is saying no.\u2019 We\u2019ve tried to do other things like that, across networks or across studios, and someone usually says, \u2018they\u2019re never gonna agree.\u2019 But she really made it happen. So we are so in her debt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDoganieri returned the compliment, and said she was united with the \u201cHacks\u201d team in her determination to pull this off.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSometimes collaborations don\u2019t work because there\u2019s different conflict of interest, but any roadblock \u2014 excuse the pun \u2014 I was determined to keep pushing forward,\u201d she said. \u201cI was like, we have to make this happen. It\u2019s the perfect collaboration, right? And just the nice thing is that over the 25-plus years and 39 seasons of Amazing Race, there is a relationship of trust with CBS. I kept them in the loop on what we were doing, and basically they said, as long as I was feeling comfortable, they were good with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the two sides learned about each other\u2019s show, that mutual level of respect grew.<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cThe Amazing Race\u201d on location<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSomebody asked me, \u2018when you\u2019re on the road filming \u201cAmazing Race,\u201d where do you how do you set up your video villages?\u2019\u201d Doganieri said. \u201cAnd I laughed because we don\u2019t have a video village. It really is run and gun. There are no second takes. It\u2019s go, go, go.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHonestly, for me, it was a joy to watch how they shoot in scripted, I have a lot of respect for what they do, the long hours that they also put in to shoot one episode,\u201d she added. \u201cHaving that moment where you\u2019re really understanding the hard work that goes into scripted and the hard work that goes into reality \u2014 and the mutual respect for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Aniello, bringing \u201cThe Amazing Race\u201d to \u201cHacks\u201d also gave her a chance to geek out on everything she always wanted to know about the show. For example, the interpersonal navigation between teams and camera operators, which are constantly switched up, so players don\u2019t get emotionally attached to the crew and vice versa. Also, how do the teams eat? What if they want a coffee?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s just fascinating,\u201d she said. \u201cI really do think it\u2019s such a cool way for so many people to see what life is like all over the world. I think for so many people probably got inspired to travel from watching \u2018Amazing Race.\u2019 It makes it so accessible that anybody could go and experience these things. Its cultural impact is actually incredibly significant and a little bit undervalued. I think it\u2019s high art.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHacks\u201d fans are about to see the most unlikely TV crossover event of the year. An upcoming episode…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,19213,61,60,47445,282],"class_list":["post-390768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-hacks","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-the-amazing-race","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}