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In the Season 5 opener of “Hacks,” Jean Smart’s beleaguered character Deborah Vance is eager to reclaim her legacy — and comes up with the perfect way to do it. She wants to be an EGOT.
The idea of the EGOT — someone
who wins all of the “Big Four” entertainment awards at some point in their career (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) — has been around for a while but became even more of a talking point as stars and producers began to move between TV, film, stage and music more effortlessly.
In the “Hacks” episode (also titled “EGOT”), Deborah notes that she’s already halfway there. She has a Daytime Emmy for hosting “Begongle,” a game show on the USA Network in 1992 where celebrities played Boggle on a constantly shaking floor. And she has a Tony Award as a producer: “In a post-coital haze, Eric Idle convinced me to put some money into ‘Spamalot’ [which actually won the Tony best musical in 2005].”
Of course, Deborah is already putting a bit of an asterisk in her EGOT journey, as there’s much debate over whether a Daytime (or News & Documentary or Sports) Emmy counts — or if EGOT should only include the more competitive Primetime Emmy space.
There are approximately 22 EGOT title holders at present time — but some got there through the Daytime Emmys (like Whoopi Goldberg, Jennifer Hudson and Alan Menken) and others landed there as one of dozens of producers on a Tony-winning play. This year, that was Steven Spielberg, whose Grammy win surprisingly earned him an EGOT — since it was previously undisclosed that he had won a Tony in 2022 as an uncredited producer on “A Strange Loop.”
Add in honorary awards from the Big Four, and the EGOT tally actually climbs to 28. I expect that number to jump even more in the coming years as more stars make EGOT a goal and find random awards categories to try and secure a win. (For non-singers needing a Grammy, the audio book, spoken word or comedy categories might be the best path — as opposed to Deborah’s attempt on “Hacks” to release a Regional Mexican/Tejano album.)
In “Hacks,” we learn that Deborah was tricked out of a co-creator and writing credit on her 1970s sitcom “Who’s Making Dinner,” or otherwise she might have actually won a Primetime Emmy. Thankfully, Smart has been much luckier — with seven Emmys and counting, plus an eighth very likely on the way. She won two as a “Frasier” guest star in 2000 and 2001 as guest comedy actress, and picked up another in 2008 as supporting comedy actress for “Samantha Who?”
Then came Smart’s “Hacks” ride, with comedy actress wins in 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2025 — every year the show was on the air. If she completes that trick in 2026, Smart will be just one behind Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who has six for “Veep”) for most wins playing the same character on the same show. With five as Deborah Vance, Smart will tie Don Knotts (“The Andy Griffith Show”) and Candice Bergen (“Murphy Brown”) for second place.
Not a bad run. Smart may not have an EGOT, but she can already boast having EGGS — that’s “Emmy, Golden Globes, SAG-AFTRA Actor.” (Yes, I just made that up.)
But Deborah Vance isn’t the only fictional Emmy winner on the real-life outstanding comedy actress Emmy ballot. In “The Comeback,” Valerie Cherish (played by Lisa Kudrow) won an outstanding comedy supporting actress Emmy at the end of Season 2, for playing a gritty version of herself in the fictional HBO dramedy “Seeing Red.”
As for Kudrow, this year reps her third time landing a lead actress nom for “The Comeback” (following 2006 and 2015) and her first in outstanding comedy writing (which she shares with Michael Patrick King). Like Valerie, Kudrow has one Emmy so far — also in the outstanding comedy supporting actress field, for “Friends” in 1998.
In a Valerie Cherish/Deborah Vance Emmy smackdown, we probably have to give the edge to Deborah, given Smart’s unstoppable winning streak. But no matter how this year goes, with “Hacks” and “The Comeback” ending their storied runs, it’s the last time we’ll get a chance to see those two iconic characters go head-to-head. Hopefully it won’t be the last for the stars who play them.
