{"id":736491,"date":"2026-08-13T08:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T08:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/736491\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T08:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T08:42:12","slug":"andy-cohen-calls-out-paul-w-downs-over-hacks-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/736491\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Cohen Calls Out Paul W. Downs Over ‘Hacks’ Joke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that Hacks<\/a> has concluded its five-season run, Andy Cohen<\/a> had a bone to pick with showrunner and star Paul W. Downs<\/a> on live TV.<\/p>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s episode of Watch What Happens Live, the talk show host called out Downs over a joke at his expense, which Jean Smart<\/a>\u2018s Deborah Vance told in the recent fifth and final season of the HBO Max series.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated Stories\t\t<\/p>\n

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

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

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPaul, as co-creator and showrunner, you were in charge at Hacks,\u201d prefaced Cohen. \u201cSo, I have a question about this particular moment in Season 5.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cohen played a clip, in which Deborah (Smart) explains, \u201cThe problem with reality shows is you cannot control the narrative. I mean, that\u2019s why I\u2019ve turned down Andy Cohen more than every twink on Fire Island.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: Emmy Nominations Analysis: \u2018The Pitt\u2019 And \u2018Hacks\u2019 Dominance Proves It Helps To Be On A Show Voters Actually Watch<\/a><\/p>\n

Meg Stalter, who plays Kayla on the series, quipped, \u201cI told him not to put it in. I said, \u2018Use someone else\u2019s name.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Downs, who co-created the series with Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky, ultimately threw Smart under the bus. \u201cI have to tell you something. Jean Smart is an improviser. She\u2019s an improviser. She improvises like crazy. We can never rein her in. I don\u2019t know why she did that,\u201d said the actor, who plays Jimmy.<\/p>\n

After airing the show\u2019s season finale in June, Hacks has broken Emmy records with 24 nominations for season 5, the most ever for a comedy series in a single year.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Last Call: Jean Smart & Hannah Einbinder To Play Their \u2018Hacks\u2019 Characters One More Time For Live FYC Event As Series Ends With No Spinoffs Planned<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that Hacks has concluded its five-season run, Andy Cohen had a bone to pick with showrunner and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[580,6491,96,5100,139976,60534,195216,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-736491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-andy-cohen","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-hacks","tag-jean-smart","tag-novid","tag-paul-w-downs","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}