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The cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert landed less than two months after HBO Max’s Hacks saw Jean Smart’s Deborah Vance quit late-night television on air, effectively ending her fictional franchise. The real-life echo of the storyline hasn’t gone unnoticed by the show’s stars and creators, who discussed the parallels at Deadline’s Contenders event in Hollywood.
“What’s happening in late-night happened on the show,” said co-creator and co-showrunner Paul W. Downs, who also plays Deborah’s manager Jimmy. “Deborah left the show and in the world of Hacks, the franchise ended, so it’s very weird that this is happening with Stephen Colbert right now because a lot of our season [four] was building up to that moment. It’s been a surreal experience.”
Downs added that while Season 4 captured the collapse of Vance’s late-night run, the upcoming fifth season—currently being written—will focus on reinvention. “A lot of Season 5 is going to be about her sort of reinventing herself and rewriting her legacy after she’s been blamed for the death of late-night,” he said.
For co-creator Lucia Aniello, the decision to have Deborah walk away from her show was about more than industry commentary. “We wanted to explore not just what late-night is at this moment, but who Deborah is when she’s hosting,” she said. “When she leaves, it’s because she wants to fight for an industry that works better for artists. She refuses to capitulate to corporate overlords. We wanted it to feel aspirational.” Downs added, “We wish there was a female late-night host. We wish there was someone standing up to corporate greed the way Deborah does. It’s wish fulfillment.”
Jean Smart, appearing virtually, recalled growing up watching Johnny Carson and Steve Allen and said hosting a late-night show was the perfect fit for her character. “She’s in control, she’s running a party,” Smart said. “But also because it was something unreachable for women, it made it more enticing for her.”
Hannah Einbinder, who plays Ava, said her own comedy career began with a stand-up set on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where she became the youngest comedian ever to perform. “It was so meaningful. It’s an institution that has meant so much,” she said. Statsky, who got her first job in comedy writing on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, added that the season was also designed to honor the grind of making a nightly talk show. “We wanted to show just how hard these shows are to make and how much work goes into them.”
Season 4 also doubled as a love letter to Los Angeles, with filming locations including Deborah’s Altadena home and a storyline about Ava moving into the Americana in Glendale. “We’re lucky to make this show in L.A.,” said Statsky. “We want to keep this city and Hollywood working the way it has for so many years.”
Guest stars this season included Julianne Nicholson as a TikTok star and Jimmy Kimmel, who clashed with Deborah over Kristen Bell. Smart praised both: “Jimmy, Mr. Nice Guy, was so awful to Deborah and so hilarious, and Julianne—no one’s ever seen her like that. She was amazing.”
Hacks, which scored 14 Emmy nominations this year including Outstanding Comedy Series (an award it won last year), has been renewed for Season 5. Produced by Universal Television, the series is executive produced by Downs and Aniello through their Paulilu banner, Statsky via First Thought Productions, Michael Schur through Fremulon, David Miner for 3 Arts Entertainment, Morgan Sackett and Joe Mande.
