Can ‘Hacks’ Follow Emmy Success of Classics Like ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ & ‘Golden Girls’?

“Hacks” could join an exclusive Emmys club this year by winning both Best Comedy Actress and Best Comedy Supporting Actress, an accomplishment only nine shows have achieved in Emmys history.

This hit HBO Max laffer stars Jean Smart as Deborah Vance, a stand-up who tries to reinvent her act with the help of a young comedy writer — Ava Daniels, played by Hannah Einbinder.

Smart is nominated this year for Best Comedy Actress alongside Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear”), Quinta Brunson (“Abbott Elementary”), Kristin Wiig (“Palm Royale”), Maya Rudolph (“Loot”), and Selena Gomez (“Only Murders in the Building”). Meanwhile, Einbinder is nominated for Best Comedy Supporting Actress alongside Meryl Streep (“Only Murders in the Building”), Liza Colón-Zayas (“The Bear”), Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Abbott Elementary”), Carol Burnett (“Palm Royale”), and Janelle James (“Abbott Elementary”).

We are predicting that Smart will win again this year. She previously won Best Comedy Actress for “Hacks” in 2021 and 2022, the first two seasons of this show. This third edition has received the best reviews to date, and we see no reason to predict that she won’t win again. This is her lucky 13th Emmy nomination. She won Best Comedy Guest Actress for “Frasier” in both 2000 and 2001, and Best Comedy Supporting Actress for “Samantha Who?” in 2008.

We are predicting that Einbinder will turn her nomination into a win too. She lost her bids for Best Comedy Supporting Actress for each of the first two seasons. Those two defeats will help her here — she is overdue a win in this category, and her arc this season was at the center of the show. Even the great Streep shouldn’t be able to touch her here, while Ralph has already won, and voters will likely award Colón-Zayas’ “The Bear” co-stars than her.

If Smart and Einbinder do indeed pull off this double play, they would be the 12th duo in Emmys history to win Best Comedy Actress and Best Comedy Supporting Actress for the same show in the same year. Below is a list of the previous examples, with the Best Comedy Actress winner stated first.*

*We are not including the 1965 ceremony as the acting categories were combined and featured five winners. We are also not including the 1960 ceremony as the lead and supporting categories were combined.

• “Schitt’s Creek” — 2020 — Catherine O’Hara and Annie Murphy
• “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” — 2018 — Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein
• “Sex and the City” — 2004 — Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon
• “Everybody Loves Raymond” — 2001 — Patricia Heaton and Doris Roberts
• “Roseanne” — 1993 — Roseanne Barr and Laurie Metcalf
• “Cheers” — 1991 — Kirstie Alley and Bebe Neuwirth
• “The Golden Girls” — 1988 — Bea Arthur and Estelle Getty
• “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” — 1976 — Mary Tyler Moore and Betty White
• “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” — 1974 — Mary Tyler Moore and Cloris Leachman
• “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” — 1973 — Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper
• “All in the Family” — 1972 — Jean Stapleton and Sally Struthers

“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” pulled off this feat three times, two of them consecutively. That means that, in total, nine different shows have won this double in the same year. Four of those came this century, while there have been two instances of this happening in the last six years — “Schitt’s Creek” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” also revolves around stand-up comediennes in the entertainment industry, so this is clearly a ripe field to plow. There is certainly precedence for “Hacks” to emulate “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and take home both awards for Smart and Einbinder.

Source: Gold Derby, HBO Max