As Hacks welcomed a late-night star in last week’s episode, the show facilitated a tense host-on-host exchange.
Co-creator Paul W. Downs noted it was guest star Jimmy Kimmel who thought up some of his own jokes in the episode, which saw him confront Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) on the CBS lot for stealing his guest booking, aiming some jabs at James Corden and Conan O’Brien.
“He came up with, ‘I got full custody of Kristen Bell after Conan died,’” Downs told USA Today, also crediting Kimmel for the crude nod at Jimmy Fallon. “We would never.”
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Meanwhile, Smart praised her scene partner for stepping out of his comfort zone. “My hat is off to him, because he kept saying, ‘I’m not an actor, you guys. Don’t expect much,’” she said. “He was kind of nervous, and then he was just a riot.”
When the actress appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live last month, the host teased his Hacks cameo, admitting he “was really very nervous, and I didn’t memorize any of my lines beforehand, which you’re supposed to do, it turns out.”
“He was so flipping good and so adorable. … By the end of the scene, he’s, like, padding his part, he’s ad-libbing. He’s adding lines,” raved Smart, to which Kimmel quipped: “That wasn’t ad-libbing. That was forgetting the lines.”
New episodes of Hacks are available to stream Thursdays on Max.