Psst! Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky would make Emmys history with a third writing win for ‘Hacks'
If Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky were to win Best Comedy Writing this year (alongside their fellow showrunner, Paul W. Downs) they would enter the Emmy record books as the women with the most wins for writing a single narrative series. They're nominated for the penultimate episode of Hacks Season 4, titled "A Slippery Slope."
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With four Emmy nominations, Aniello and Statsky have already tied Tina Fey (30 Rock) and Diane English (Murphy Brown) for the most bids for a woman in the Best Comedy Writing category. To date, Aniello, Statsky, Fey and Anne Flett-Giordano (Frasier) are the only women to prevail twice for a comedy; Fey has a third writing win under her belt for the variety program Saturday Night Live. For dramas, Robin Green (The Sopranos) holds the record for a single series for a female writer, with six noms and two wins.
Comedy Writing
Contender
Odds
1.
Hacks
A Slippery Slope
71.5%
2.
The Studio
The Promotion
17.1%
3.
Abbott Elementary
Back to School
4.8%
4.
What We Do in the Shadows
The Finale
2.5%
5.
The Rehearsal
Pilot's Code
2.1%
6.
Somebody Somewhere
AGG
1.9%
Aniello, Statsky, and Downs are competing at the 2025 Emmys against the following scribes: Quinta Brunson for Abbott Elementary ("Back to School"); Nathan Fielder, Carrie Kemper, Adam Locke-Norton, and Eric Notarnicola for The Rehearsal ("Pilot's Code"); Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen, and Bridget Everett for Somebody Somewhere ("AGG"); Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez for The Studio ("The Promotion"); and Sam Johnson, Sarah Naftalis, and Paul Simms for What We Do in the Shadows ("The Finale").
Rather impressively, there are eight females nominated this year in the Best Comedy Writing contest. Joining Aniello and Statsky are Brunson, who's on her third bid for Abbott Elementary, winning in 2022; Naftalis, now up for the second time for What We Do in the Shadows; and category newbies Kemper, Bos, Everett, and Frida.
The Hacks showrunning trio previously won the writing race twice for Season 1's "There Is No Line" and Season 3's "Bulletproof." In Season 4's "A Slippery Slope," Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) quits her talk show live on air after defying an order from the network executive to fire her head writer, Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder).
"We wanted the audience in Ava's head asking, has [Deborah] really changed, or is she always going to be this narcissist who looks out for number one?" Statsky says in the above video featurette. Aniello adds, "She made an emotional choice, which is so unlike her."
Hacks is TV's reigning Best Comedy Series Emmy champion, and this year it's up for 14 nominations: series, lead actress (Smart), supporting actress (Einbinder), guest actress (Julianne Nicholson), guest actress (Robby Hoffman), writing (Aniello, Statsky, and Downs), directing (Aniello), casting, cinematography, costumes, hairstyling, music supervision, picture editing, and production design.
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