When it comes to the Emmys, many assume that whenever a beloved veteran show reaches its end, it will sweep awards for its finale just because it is the voters’ last chance to honor it. To that end, once the final season of “Hacks” premieres on April 9th, fans and critics will have already engraved a bunch of “farewell” Emmys for it because it is ending, regardless of whether the last season is actually Emmy-caliber or not.
But how often does that line of thinking actually work whenever a landmark show ends? Judging by what has happened to the final seasons of other iconic, past Emmy-winning shows, it tends to happen more often than not, with a few notable exceptions.
When it comes to long-running shows, they are far more likely to get Emmys for their final season if they have won before. In the last few years alone, cult favorite FX comedies “Reservation Dogs” and “What We Do in the Shadows” were nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series for their last seasons. Yet, they didn’t win anything at the end. Since both shows were repeatedly snubbed for nominations in past seasons, the last-minute nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series served as their real wins.
The biggest exception to this trend was “Schitt’s Creek,” which didn’t get an Outstanding Comedy Series nomination until its second-to-last season in 2019. Despite losing that year to what is still supposedly the final season of “Fleabag,” “Schitt’s Creek” rebounded the next year and fully swept the Emmys for its final season in 2020. It may have been a special exception because “Schitt’s Creek” was a uniquely slow-burning success and because 2020 was a pandemic year, but “Schitt’s Creek” is still the very rare case of a show that became an Emmy juggernaut only in its last season.
Other shows that swept the major Emmys in their final season were already big winners in the past, though most recent examples are in Outstanding Drama Series. Just two years ago, in 2023, “Succession” won virtually every Emmy in its path for its fourth and last season, which was made easier after its second and third seasons won Outstanding Drama Series, too. It also followed in the footsteps of previous HBO Emmy giant “Game of Thrones,” which won for its last episodes in 2019. Although that show was so gigantic, it won even after countless viewers who weren’t Emmy voters tore the final episodes apart.
In contrast, “Breaking Bad’s” ending was far more adored by both critics and voters when it won its last Emmys in 2014. Like “Schitt’s Creek,” “Breaking Bad” took a while to dominate the Emmys, winning its first Outstanding Drama Series Emmy in 2013. But unlike “Schitt’s Creek,” it won a share of other Emmys first for Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, before the show itself caught up to them and won in its last few chances.
Between shows like “Succession,” “Breaking Bad,” “Game of Thrones,” and “The Sopranos,” it makes it far easier to assume a beloved TV show and past Emmy winner is entitled to one final batch of Emmys as a swan song. Yet that isn’t always the case for some famed shows and past winners, although there have been some mitigating circumstances.
Back when “Succession” won its final Emmys in 2023, it beat out the final season of “Better Call Saul,” which, despite constant nominations, didn’t win a single Emmy. The next year, the final season of “The Crown” lost Outstanding Drama Series to “Shogun,” two seasons after it had won its first Outstanding Drama Series Emmy in 2021. But with “Shogun” blocking the way after its then-controversial decision not to submit as a miniseries, and with “The Crown” not quite universally adored by its finale, that past Outstanding Drama Series Emmy winner couldn’t get one last win to cap its legacy.
In the middle of “Game of Thrones‘” Emmy dominance in the second half of the 2010s, the first season of “The Handmaid’s Tale” won for Outstanding Drama Series in 2017, although it never had to beat “Game of Thrones” to do so. For that reason and others, it never threatened to win again. It stopped getting nominated in Outstanding Drama Series years before its last season – just like “Homeland” did after winning for its debut season in 2012.
Yet it is one thing for shows to win Emmys right out of the gate before immediately dropping off, and quite another for shows to keep winning year after year only to have their last seasons lose anyway. That happened to “Mad Men,” which won Outstanding Drama Series for its first four seasons and then lost for its last four, including its final season in 2015 – the same year “Game of Thrones” won its first Outstanding Drama Series Emmy in a true changing of the guard. This also happened to “The West Wing” after its first four seasons won Outstanding Drama Series, as it couldn’t even get one more for its last season in 2006 – the year “24” became the very last broadcast network show to win Outstanding Drama Series instead.
When it comes to Outstanding Comedy Series, the big examples of shows that won right out of the gate and then couldn’t anymore by the time they ended were “30 Rock,” which only won for its first three seasons in 2007-09, and “Modern Family” after it swept the next five Outstanding Comedy Series Emmys in 2010-14. This doesn’t apply to “Hacks” since it lost Outstanding Comedy Series for its first two seasons and then won for Season Three – but not every HBO show that only starts winning midway through its run wins at the end, too.
Right after “Modern Family’s” Emmy streak ended, “Veep” won the next three years for its fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons from 2015-17. However, its seventh and final season lost anyway in 2019, thanks to “Fleabag” swooping in as a big surprise breakthrough, to the point where even Julia Louis-Dreyfus lost as Selina Meyer for the first and last time. Perhaps this can serve as the biggest cautionary tale for “Hacks,” in case something or someone surprises it at the last minute and even puts Jean Smart in danger of losing as Deborah Vance for the first and last time.
At the moment, few are predicting any of that to happen, in part because “Hacks” doesn’t have to have a rematch with “The Studio” after it knocked it off for Outstanding Comedy Series last year. Without that budding juggernaut in the way this year, with previous Outstanding Comedy Series winner “The Bear” having faded ever since “Hacks” beat it in 2024, and with former two-time Outstanding Comedy Series winner “Ted Lasso” not coming back until the next Emmy season either, it looks like the path is exceedingly clear for “Hacks” to be back on top one last time. Otherwise, all that is seemingly in the way is shows that have never won Outstanding Comedy Series before like “Abbott Elementary,” “Only Murders in the Building,” “Shrinking,” and “Nobody Wants This,” brand new shows like “Margo’s Got Money Troubles,” “The Lowdown,” and “Spider-Noir,” and the latest comeback for “The Comeback.”
Perhaps since most shows that won for a final season did so in Outstanding Drama Series, with the exceptions of “Schitt’s Creek” and “Everybody Loves Raymond,” it may be different in Outstanding Comedy Series for something like “Hacks.” Then again, since “Hacks” is a rare past winner still regarded as a win-competitive threat before its last season, and since it has only won Outstanding Comedy Series once instead of winning over and over again as Smart has, it isn’t suffering from the kind of awards fatigue or creative backlash so many other Emmy winners hit by their finales.
Of course the actual final episodes could still change that, on the off chance there is a sudden “Game of Thrones” level collapse at the finish line – something which Emmy voters might not be so inclined to ignore this time – or that “Hacks” supposedly years-in-the-making final fate for Deborah and Ava doesn’t actually make sense anymore after all their misadventures, a la the ending for “How I Met Your Mother.”
Yet for now, the expectation is that the real ending of “Hacks” will be one long coronation leading up to one last Emmy sweep, like the final seasons of many other shows before it – but the last episodes still have to pass muster with viewers who aren’t Emmy voters first.
Are you excited for the final season “Hacks?” Do you think it will win Outstanding Comedy Series again for its final season after not winning for its fourth? Is Jean Smart unstoppable for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series? Please let us know in the comments section below and on Next Best Picture’s X account.
You can follow Robert and hear more of his thoughts on the Emmys & TV on X @Robertdoc1984
