‘Hacks’ Showrunners on the Parallels Between Their Show and Reality Amid the Colbert Cancellation

‘Hacks’ Showrunners on the Parallels Between Their Show and Reality Amid the Colbert Cancellation

In early June,Hacks star Jean Smart made a guest appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. She told him she’d love for him to appear on the upcoming fifth season of her Emmy-winning show about a legendary stand-up comedian stashed away in Las Vegas and canceled Gen Z writer Ava, played by Hannah Einbinder, who comes to her rescue. 

“It’s too late,” Colbert enigmatically said. Just days before, HBO Max released the episode in which Smart’s character, Deborah Vance, sacrifices her lifelong dream of finally becoming the first woman to host a late night show rather than give in to corporate bullying and fire Ava for leaking an unflattering story about the network. 

Colbert’s retort didn’t make sense until mid-July, when CBS brass announced it was cutting ties with the audacious and affable host — a frequent critic of President Donald Trump — and canceling the iconic Late Show franchise altogether. 

From the beginning, Hacks showrunners Jen Statsky, Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs have been tapping into the cultural zeitgeist in an uncanny case of art imitating life, or life imitating art (take your pick). The trio, who first met 17 years ago — Downs and Aniello have since married — while doing underground comedy in New York, recently spoke with THR about the Emmy-nominated fourth season, and how the penultimate episode, in which Smart’s character walks off the set of her show, was the most seminal, and emotional, of the series to date.

In the season four finale, TMZ publishes a fake obit [for Deborah] suggesting she was responsible for the death of late night. What happens in season five? 

PAUL W. DOWNS Both Deborah and Ava are re-­energized. And Ava’s really excited that Deborah has new wind in her sails after seemingly giving up. 

JEN STATSKY They have a pretty strong mission, which is to rewrite Deborah’s obituary.

LUCIA ANIELLO And have a really heavy hand in her legacy. That’s something we’re wrestling with for the characters, what legacy means and to what ends you’ll go for it and how satisfying that is. 

Does Deborah return to late night? 

DOWNS We can’t say. 

Do you think Paramount Global and/or CBS went too far in appeasing Washington in order to secure approval of the Skydance merger?

DOWNS To cause disruptions at 60 Minutes and then turn around and do this to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert feels so brazen. Not only because it’s in the face of this merger that they need approval from Trump on, but also the very fact that [CBS] wouldn’t protect such an important American institution that built a lot of their value is really tragic. It’s scary, in fact. 

ANIELLO It’s also an indication of where we’re at politically. For this administration, silencing its critics is more important than anything else. That is not a particularly healthy sign for comedians — especially if you’re talking about a white Catholic male [Colbert] being silenced. [It’s] a pretty serious indication that the administration is not really interested in criticism from comedians or the media.

Did you have any idea that late night would blow up to this degree when you set out to make Hacks? 

ANIELLO It is, again, a mirror of the intersection of capitalism versus art, which is something that is so of the moment. And that is something that will continue to be explored in the rest of the series. 

DOWNS And it’s not unlike Stephen Colbert being silenced. Deborah has this non-compete clause, so she’s unable to perform in much of the world. So she is also being silenced.

Did you have a hard time selling the show? 

DOWNS We had more than one offer, so we were very pleasantly surprised. We weren’t sure that we were going to sell a show about a 70-plus female comedian living in Las Vegas and her young, bisexual writer.

STATSKY Some places didn’t get it, as with any idea. 

What is the writing process like? Paul also stars in the show, while both he and Lucia separately direct many of the episodes. The three of you have been friends for 17 years.

STATSKY We really operate as one giant hive mind. At every part of the process of Hacks, the three of us are talking about it and parsing it out. 

DOWNS We complete all of our scripts before we shoot, which is not the case for every show. We’re here for every single episode and every single decision. We maintain that hive mind through production and the edit. 

This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.