After wrapping up its final season on Thursday, Hacks is hoping for one last curtain call at the Emmys.
The HBO Max original won the Best Comedy Series prize for its third season in 2024, beating out the previous year’s winner, The Bear. Hacks came up short last year against the debut season of The Studio, but with that show out of the running this go-around, the Jean Smart-led show is the odds-on favorite, according to Gold Derby’s prediction data. Should it pull off a victory, Hacks would be the rare series to clinch the Emmy for its farewell season.
Although it’s true that Television Academy voters love things that are shiny and new (like both of last year’s series winners, The Studio and The Pitt), they’ve often given a send-off to one of their old favorites. Take, for instance, Succession, which sailed to victory for its final season in 2023 after winning that prize for its second and third. It lost for its debut season in 2018 to another HBO drama, Game of Thrones, which easily took Best Drama Series in its final year after three previous wins.
Before Game of Thrones began its winning streak in 2015, Emmy voters gave a final send-off to Breaking Bad, which won back-to-back prizes in 2013 and 2014 for its two-part final season. Similarly, The Sopranos broke up its final season into two parts, the second of which triumphed at the Emmys in 2007.
In 2005, Emmy voters showered love upon Everybody Loves Raymond for its farewell season, which came just two years after its first victory for season seven (with a win for the first season of Arrested Development sandwiched in-between, a la The Studio and Hacks). The year before Raymond’s first win, the TV Academy bid adieu to Friends, which won its sole Best Comedy Series award in its final year.
Much like Friends, Barney Miller enjoyed a victory lap in 1982 for its eighth and final season. In 1977, the TV Academy bestowed prizes upon a pair of favorites leaving the airwaves for good: The Mary Tyler Moore Show on the comedy side, and Upstairs, Downstairs on the dramatic. Speaking of Mary Tyler Moore, her TV breakthrough, The Dick Van Dyke Show, took home Best Comedy Series in 1966 for its final season, after prior victories for its second, third, and fourth.
Sometimes, the final season can be something shiny and new to Emmy voters, as was the case with back-to-back champions Fleabag (2019) and Schitt’s Creek (2020). Fleabag, in fact, snatched victory away from the final season of another Emmy favorite, Veep, and on its first try, no less. Among the shows Fleabag also beat were Schitt’s Creek, competing for the first time with Season 5 ahead of a win for Season 6.
Hacks isn’t the only series hoping to pull off a win with its last try. Among its competitors in Best Comedy Series is The Comeback, which is quite literally coming back after an 11-year hiatus and could find itself in the running for the big prize for the very first time. Over in Best Drama Series, previous nominees Stranger Things and The Boys are both seeking a return to a crowded field for their respective swan songs.
Emmy Awards Nominations 2026
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Working in Hacks‘ favor is the volume of nominations it’s predicted to snag overall. According to Gold Derby data, Jean Smart is virtually assured a fifth Best Comedy Actress nomination, while co-star Hannah Einbinder leads the way in the supporting category.
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Co-star and co-creator Paul W. Downs, meanwhile, is currently ranked second in the race for a supporting actor nomination, behind Shrinking’s Harrison Ford, while Megan Stalter is also looking for her first nomination in Best Comedy Supporting Actress.
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LONDON, ENGLAND – JUNE 20: Natascha McElhone arrives at the Paramount+ UK launch at Outernet London on June 20, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Joe Maher/Getty Images for Paramount+)
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 27: Carla Gugino, Kelly Ripa and Naomi Watts attend the Haute Living Celebrates Kelly Ripa And The Release Of “Live Wire” With Parfums de Marly And Telmont Champagne At Scarpetta at Scarpetta on September 27, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Haute Living)
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Hacks is also expected to be rack up nominations in the comedy guest actress race, with Leslie Bibb, Cherry Jones, Kaitlyn Olsen, and Laurie Metcalf (who previously won this category for the show) all on the leaderboard. Meanwhile, Christopher McDonald is lurking just outside of the top five in Best Comedy Guest Actor.
Hacks also benefits from a comedy series race that’s lacking in fresh contenders. The only first-season shows ranked in Gold Derby’s Top 10 are Margo’s Got Money Troubles and Rooster, with the rest of the field made up of returning nominees (Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Jury Duty, Nobody Wants This, Only Murders in the Building, Shrinking) and an older show looking for its first nomination (The Comeback).
Finally, Hacks managed to produce a series finale that for most critics and viewers stuck the landing — with a series-best 9.6 episode rating on IMDb — providing a strong closing argument just before Emmy voting is set to begin.
