From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business.

The HBO Mac series Hacks showcases Gene Smart as a veteran comedian who gets paired up with a much younger writer in an effort to update her material so she can hold on to her long-running stage show in Las Vegas.

In real life, Smart also wanted the show to go on, even when her husband died

unexpectedly with a week of shooting left. The show winners were prepared to shut down indefinitely,

but she insisted that the cameras keep rolling. The woman wanted to do all her own stunts.

She wanted to jump on the helicopter. So we knew from working with her that she is all in.

She is fully committed.

And so in that way, we kind of looked to her in this time as well.

Paul W. Downs and Jens Statsky, who created the series along with Lucia and Yellow,

tells us about pitching hacks to HBO Max before the streamer even had a name.

Now hacks this up for 15 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series.

But first, we banter.

Stay tuned.

It's the business from KCRW.

I am joined by my colleague in banter, Matt Bellany.

Hello, Matt.

Hi there.

So this is a week of talking about the various news divisions of the various networks.

Let's start with MSNBC, the Rachel Maddo show.

Rachel Maddo put it out there that she was thinking,

yeah, maybe I don't want to do this so much anymore. Maybe I'm going to leave and start my own

thing. And that gave her the opportunity to negotiate a staggering deal. And she's still,

...