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

The award-winning HBO Max series Hacks introduced us to Gene Smart, as a veteran comedian

who gets paired up with a much younger writer in an effort to update her material and

jumpstart her career. In three seasons, the show has explored the hilarious and poignant ups and downs of

their relationship. In real life, Smart wanted the show to go on while the first season was in production,

even after her husband died unexpectedly with a week of shooting left. The showrunners were prepared

to shut down indefinitely, but Smart insisted that the cameras keep rolling.

The woman wanted to do all her own stun. 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 look to her

in this time as well. Since then, the hit series has won seven Emmys, including awards for outstanding comedy series

and two best actress awards for Smart.

The third season of Hacks landed in May,

and HBO Max has, of course, ordered another round.

Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky,

who created the series along with Lucia Agnello,

spoke to us in 2021 about pitching hacks to HBO Max before the streamer even had a name. We'll revisit that conversation,

but first we banter. Stick around. It's the business from KCRW.

I am joined by a guest banterer, Lucas Shaw of Bloomberg News.

He comes around every so often to jump into a mega banter with us.

But today he is substituting for our usual banter partner, Matt Bellany, who is taking a well-deserved break.

And part of the problem here is we are talking about the moving target of Paramount and the drama there.

Matt and I had actually done a banter about that and about five minutes after we did it.

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