Talk about being prescient.
Before CBS announced they were pulling the plug on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Season 4 of HBO’s Hacks already dealt with a similar situation in which protagonist Deborah Vance’s late-night show host went fiercely toe-to-toe with network brass over freedom of humorous expression — a fight that gets the Jean Smart character fired.
One of the rumors out there is that CBS axed The Late Show due to its slanting humor against POTUS (the network claims it was about lack of profitability in late-night) and to appease the administration in its recent blessing of the Skydance-Paramount merger.
Still, there’s something soothsaying in Hacks Season 4 when it comes to not just its commentary on late-night, but also the state of comedy overall. We speak with Hacks co-creators Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky about it all in today’s episode of Deadline’s Crew Call podcast.
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Downs, taking a quick break from the Season 5 writers room, says, “We were shaken by the news of Stephen Colbert’s cancellation because, it’s literally the same circumstances under which Deborah chooses to leave her show.”
“It was kind of a crazy thing to have that happen. Almost witchy, that it happened right after this. I mean, literally like three months after the episode aired,” he continues.
The current state of comedy entertainment is seeing the best of times and worst of times. On one end, stand-ups are seeing boom times thanks to social media, but sketch artists and comedy players are finding it hard to launch shows as streamers pinch pennies. That’s frustrating considering the format has always been thriftily priced. Still, streamers have an efficiency obsession over the ratio of cost vs. viewership.
Says Downs, “I don’t think it’s harder to make comedy (nowadays) because of the culture or climate. Why it’s harder to make comedy now is because there is no Comedy Central. And now with the cancellation of The Late Show, which for a lot of writers is the place they get their first job and for a lot of standups, it’s a place they get their first break and they get seen for the first time. Institutions like that going away and Comedy Central Originals going away — that’s why it’s hard to make comedy. And it’s exactly what we deal with in (the episode) ‘A Slippery Slope’.”
“It’s harder to make comedy because, you know, people, the business has changed so much, and now it’s not enough just to make a small profit,” Downs adds.
“With tech, with streaming, with public companies that have stock prices to worry about, I do think that now it’s not enough just to make a profit.”
“But particularly in comedy, it’s really scary. We hear anecdotally things all the time from our writers whose agents say, ‘You know, maybe you should write a drama script.’ So, I think it’s harder to make comedy basically because of the marketplace and because people are scared of taking risks. Because when a comedy does work, I think it’s really successful and really lucrative for people.”
“Deborah actually deals with that in her monologue. She says there are good people on the business side. When she gets it, it’s a business. But she leaves the show because she believes that we don’t need to roll over to business as usual. And like her corporate overlords, she believes in fighting for a business that works for both executives and for artists.”
We also chat with Statsky and Downs about the future of Hacks returning to shoot in Altadena which was impacted by the fires (and saw the loss of the mansion where Vance lives), as well as their next show Kansas City Star starring Kaley Cuoco.
Hacks counts nine Emmy wins including a surprise prize last year for Outstanding Comedy Series. Hacks is up for 14 Emmy nominations for Season 4 including Comedy Series; Lucia Aniello’s directing on “A Slippery Slope” in Comedy Series Directing; and Aniello, Downs and Statsky’s Comedy Series Writing for that episode.
Listen to our conversation below: