What a weekend. Just like “Anora,” which has fully jumped back into the Best Picture race, the television show “Hacks” also had an incredibly auspicious weekend, adding a PGA Award and DGA Award to join its Critics Choice Awards 2025 statue for Best Comedy Series.
Though other current reigning Emmy winners like “Shōgun,” “Baby Reindeer,” and “Ripley” were big winners as well, those shows have either ended or are far off from a new season, so their PGA and/or DGA Award wins have little effect on the upcoming Emmys race. But “Hacks” is expected to premiere its fourth season in the spring, most likely making it eligible for a possible back-to-back Outstanding Comedy Series win.
At the DGA Awards 2025, “Hacks” director and co-showrunner Lucia Aniello got emotional thanking the room full of peers for awarding her work directing the Season 3 finale “Bulletproof.” “I’m very proud to be a member of this union,” she said. “I really believe in the strength of our union and unions across the country as a force right now, in this moment.”
She added, “On our show, Deborah Vance is a famous comedian and her relationship with her audience is probably the most lasting relationship she has in her life. So for us, crowds are a huge character in our show and that is directed by the people behind me. They are incredible,” gesturing to her Unit Production Manager Chris R. Robinson, First Assistant Director Jeff Rosenberg, Second Assistant Director Erin Stern Linares, Second Second Assistant Director Alaina Neumann Rafdal, Additional Second Assistant Director Chalis Romero who share the award with Aniello.
The unifying sentiment goes along with her and her “Hacks” co-creators acceptance speech at the Critics Choice Awards, calling for executives to bring production back to Los Angeles as a way to help the city recover from the devastating wildfires in January.
The past few years, the Comedy Series categories have see a tight race between “Hacks,” “The Bear,” “Abbott Elementary,” and “Ted Lasso” (which is reportedly being revived). Though “The Bear” broke the record for most comedy Emmy wins in one night at the 2024 Emmys, “Hacks” ultimately won Outstanding Comedy Series, with many crediting it being more humor forward as the reason it trumped the FX series.
“Hacks” winning again over “The Bear” at the PGA Awards, and especially the DGAs, where the latter show had three nominations in the same category, shows that Emmy win was not a fluke. Even though there are new comedies in the mix like “Nobody Wants This” or “English Teacher,” that are being pegged for an Emmys run, the Max series that has earned star Jean Smart three Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series wins in a row is now locked in as the comedy to beat, should Season 4 maintain the same level of quality.
