Jean Smart Ties Emmy Record With Fifth Hacks Win — SkimNews
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- Jean Smart earned her fifth consecutive Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series win for the fifth and final season of HBO Max's Hacks.
- Smart tied Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cloris Leachman for the most Emmys ever by a performer with eight total — five for Hacks, two Guest Actress in a Comedy for Frasier, and one Supporting Actress in a Comedy for Samantha Who?, completing the comedy acting trifecta.
- Smart dedicated her win to Hacks creators/executive producers Lucia Aniello, Jen Statsky, and Paul W. Downs, telling the crowd 'it all begins and ends with them.'
- Smart became the only performer to win an acting Emmy for every eligible season of a show running four or more seasons — with an asterisk, since Louis-Dreyfus won six straight for Veep; had Veep ended at six seasons instead of seven, she would still own the outright streak record.
- Smart tied Candice Bergen for second-most Emmys won for a single role at five (Bergen's Murphy Brown run), while Louis-Dreyfus holds the single-role record at six for Veep.
- Smart was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame just months before her final-season Emmy, and channeled her character Deborah Vance in her acceptance speech with a joke about how uncomfortable it is for women wearing tight shapewear and high heels.
Why it matters: Smart's fifth consecutive Hacks win pushes her into an eight-Emmy tie with Louis-Dreyfus and Leachman for the all-time performer record — and the asterisk is the story. Had Veep ended after six seasons, Louis-Dreyfus's six-in-a-row streak would still be unmatched, and this 'record' would be 'tied for second.' Smart's Hacks haul plus her Hall of Fame induction in the same year marks a late-career coronation rare in television history.
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