When the fourth season ofHackspremieres this week, newly minted late-night talk show host Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) is going to run into two real-life TV superstars.Entertainment Weeklyreports thatCarol BurnettandJimmy Kimmelwill guest-star as themselves on the upcoming season of the hit HBO comedy. While Burnett will turn up to lend support to Vance, Kimmel’s role on the series will be more adversarial.
Hacks' fourth season will center around comedy legend Vance finally getting her shot to headline a late-night talk show, with her on-and-off frenemy Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) making herself its head writer via blackmail. In the season;s fourth episode, the pressure soon gets to Deborah, as she experiences her first-ever case of stage fright while in rehearsals for her first episode; she finds some support in the form of comedy veteran Burnett. As Smart says, Deborah wouldn’t admit her vulnerability “to anybody except somebody like Carol Burnett.” Meanwhile, Kimmel will turn up in the next episode, as he confronts her over a guest she’s trying to poach from him. Kimmel wrote a lot of his own dialogue, reveals series co-creator and co-starPaul W. Downs: “He brought some of his own dialogue that was really good. He went there.”
Who Else Has Played Themselves on ‘Hacks’?
When the series began, Deborah Vance was an established headliner in Las Vegas, so a number of real-life Sin City luminaries dropped by the series to add to its verisimilitude, includingWayne NewtonandCarrot Top. The series has also featured a number of comedians playing themselves, including in a third-season episode in which Deborah is subjected to a deeply uncomfortable roast: they includeMargaret Cho,George Wallace,Mario Cantone,Patton Oswalt, andNatasha Leggero. Deborah also dropped intoThe Viewin season 3, with appearances from hostsWhoopi Goldberg,Joy Behar,Sunny Hostin,Sara Haines, andAlyssa Farah Griffin. However, the show’s strangest real-life cameo came fromDays of Our LiveslegendDeidre Hall, who is the mother of Deborah and Ava’s manager, Jimmy (Downs); after being name-dropped earlier in season 3, she dropped into Deborah’s Christmas party later in the season.
Hackshas been a hit with critics and viewers since it debuted in 2021. Last year, it upset reigning champThe Bearto winOutstanding Comedy Seriesat the Primetime Emmy Awards.
The fourth season ofHackspremieres on Thursday, April 10. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
Source:Entertainment Weekly
