Emmys 2024: Jean Smart Hilariously Mocks HBO/Max Confusion in Best Comedy Actress Acceptance Speech

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Hacks star Jean Smart brought down the house with a hilarious and heartfelt acceptance speech at the 2024 Emmy Awards tonight. The living legend took home the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, edging out the likes of The Bear‘s Ayo Edebiri, Only Murders in the Buildings Selena Gomez, Abbott Elementary‘s Quinta Brunson, Loot‘s Maya Rudolph, and Palm Royale‘s Kristen Wiig. As Smart took to the stage, she received a standing ovation, buoyed by a cheering Edebiri and Gomez, who could be seen mouthing, “She’s so good.” Smart used her speech to thank her rep and make fun of HBO and Max‘s confusing streaming status…

A visibly moved Jean Smart accepted her Emmy award tonight by thanking to the celebrity crowd for their standing ovation, quipping, “I just don’t get enough attention.”

After that, she went on to thank Hacks creators and showrunners Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky for building the show around her. However, she got a little tripped up when it came time to thank Hacks‘s network.

“[Thanks to] everyone at HBO — no —Max — no, I’m sorry.” Smart sighed. “Just what we needed: another network.” The audience cackled at what appears to be a trend tonight with celebs mocking the inscrutable names of streamers.

Smart ended her speech thanking her agent of thirty years, Scott Henderson. She praised him for never trying to talk her in or out of projects, but joked that he wasn’t there that night. “He’s gonna bicycle through France because that’s better than representing me,” Smart said.

Smart’s award was garnering fireworks before her name was even called. Murphy Brown star Candice Bergen presented the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series tonight and prefaced the honor by poking fun at how 2024 Republican Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance has been echoing the same rhetoric early ’90s VP Dan Quayle launched at her when her sitcom character opted to raise a child out of wedlock.


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Smart’s win for Hacks was the first win of the night in the comedy categories that didn’t go to The Bear.