‘Hacks’ Wins Outstanding Comedy Series at 2024 Emmys: Comedy ‘Can Bridge Divides’
Deborah Vance hive, rise! The comedy inside a comedy TV series, Hacks, took home the prize for Outstanding Comedy Series to end the night at the 2024 Emmy Awards. Hacks co-creator Paul W. Downs called for more roles featuring people over 60 as he thanked the cast and crew, while Lucia Aniello highlighted the power of comedy to “bridge divides.”
“Let’s brace ourselves, I might get emotional,” said Downs, who also plays Jimmy LuSaque, Deborah and Ava’s manager in the series. “We are so lucky to live our dream and make television, and we couldn’t do it without our Hacks family, all of our writers, all of our cast, all of our crew who make our dreams come true. Literally.”
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“When we pitched this show about two women, one of whom was over 60, we did not know if we would sell it,” Downs said, before thanking the show’s production companies. “About 20 percent of our population is over 60 [years old], and there are only 3 percent of those characters on television. I would like to see more of them, because while I’m a great young supporting actor, I really want to be a good old lead.”
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Lucia Aniello, show co-creator, took the microphone amid claps to highlight the importance of comedy and how it can speak truth to power. “Comedy is so important, obviously to us, but we feel like it can bridge divides. When you laugh with someone, you have something in common with them,” Aniello said. “So please support comedy. It speaks truth to power. It really does.”
“Support your local comedian, and we have to go to start shooting the next season in five days,” she added.
Reuniting the Schitt’s Creek cast onstage with co-hosts Dan and Eugene Levy and Annie Murphy, Catherine O’Hara presented the award. Hacks beat out fellow nominees Abbott Elementary, What We Do in the Shadows, Reservation Dogs, Only Murders in the Building, Palm Royale, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Last year, The Bear won the award, while Ted Lasso took the trophy the year prior.
Hacks charts the career journey of Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), a former stand-up comedian and talk show host whose long-running residency at a Las Vegas casino is canceled. In an effort to revive her act, Vance’s agent hires a frankly annoying and egotistic young comedy writer Ava Daniels to help de-age her act. The two immediately can’t stand each other, but when they get into a work flow, they quickly realize the other might be exactly what they need to survive in showbiz.
Earlier in the night, Downs, Aniello, and Jen Statsky won Best Writing for a Comedy Series for an episode of the show.
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