“Hacks” surprises with award at the 2024 Emmys as best comedy series

It's official! Hacking took home the award for Outstanding Comedy Series at the 76th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

Co-Creator Paul W. Downs, who received the award on Sunday, September 15, together with the Hacking The cast on the Emmy stage said: “No thoughts are running through my head. Thank you to the Academy, let's get ready, I might get emotional. I have to say we are so lucky to be living our dream and making television and we couldn't do it without our Hacks family. All of our writers, all of our cast, all of our collaborators who make our dreams come true, literally.”

“When we proposed this show about two women, one of whom was over 60, we didn't know if we would sell it,” he continued. “About 20% of our population is over 60 and only 3% of these characters [are] on television. I'd love to see more of that because even though I'm a great young supporting actor, I really want to play a good old leading role.”

Writer and director Lucia Aniello added: “Comedy is obviously very important to us and we really believe it can bridge divides. If you laugh with someone, you have something in common with them. So please support comedy, it speaks truth to power. It really does, so support your local comedian.”

Finally, she added: “We have to go because filming for the next season starts in five days.”

Hackingwhose first season aired in 2021, tells the complex relationship between comedian Deborah (Jean Smart) and comedy writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder), who come from two very different generations.

Smart, 72 – who also won an Emmy for outstanding actress in a comedy series – spoke in an interview with about the role of a comedian The Hollywood Reporter in June.

“When I read the script, I thought, 'This is everything I could want for my next job,'” she said. “But I had to be sure that real stand-up comedians would believe I was a comedian. I had never been a comedian, so they were the real litmus test. And I think I passed!”

Other nominees for outstanding comedy series included Abbott Elementary School, The bear, Curb your enthusiasm, Only murders in the building, Palm Royale, Reservation dogs And What we do in the shadows.

Abbott Elementary School follows a group of Philadelphia teachers grappling with the challenges of teaching at an inner-city public school in a mockumentary style. Star and creator Quinta Brunson was inspired by her mother's experiences as a kindergarten teacher when developing the series.

“My mother is the person you make TV or movies for,” said Brunson, 34, The New York Times“She is the person who watches TV and laughs and watches a movie and gasp! The stuff you write where it's like, 'Oh man, this is going to mess her up' – my mom is the one who gets that. So she's not interested in giving her opinion or giving advice. She couldn't care less.”

Abbott Elementary School — which returns for a fourth season on October 9 — received a total of nine Emmy nominations in 2024, including for Brunson and supporting actors Janelle James, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Tyler James Williams.

The bear tells the story of gourmet chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), who returns to his hometown of Chicago after the unexpected death of his brother (Jon Bernthal) to renovate a local sandwich shop.

Before filming the FX series, 33-year-old White revealed that he and his co-star Ayo Edebiri trained with professional chefs.

“Before we ran the pilot project, I visited the Institute of Culinary Education in Pasadena,” White explained in a 2022 interview with B. “That’s where I met Ayo – we got to know each other while cooking, which was nice because the way Sydney and Carmy communicate, [with] getting to know each other happens through cooking.”

Curb your enthusiasm premiered on HBO in 2000 and was inspired by an hour-long mockumentary originally intended as a one-off, in which Larry David portrayed an exaggerated version of himself. The series went on hiatus in 2011 after season 8 and resumed in 2017. Over the course of 24 years, the series received a total of 55 Emmy nominations and six Golden Globe nominations.

“As curb comes to an end, I will now have the opportunity to finally shed this ‘Larry David’ role and become the person God intended me to be – the thoughtful, kind, caring, considerate person I was until I was thrown off track by the portrayal of this evil character,” David joked in December 2023, when curb announced its final season.

He continued: “And so, 'Larry David', I say goodbye to you. We will not miss your misanthropy. And if any of you would like to get in touch with me, you can reach me at Doctors Without Borders.”

With Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, Only murders in the building follows three New Yorkers living on the Upper West Side who share a love of true crime podcasts and eventually find themselves in the midst of (some) true crime.

Short, 74, told PEOPLE in May that it was a joy to work with his co-stars Martin, 79, and Gomez, 32, on the hit Hulu series, whose fourth season premiered on August 27.

“It's a very, very, very relaxed, fun set. I think everyone has the same opinion – that the show is really fun and relaxed to work on, and that's kind of Steve's philosophy, that's how he's always worked, and Selena has too,” Short said. “So everyone works with joy and happiness, because we're happy people.”

To Palm RoyaleIn “The 40 Years of the 40 Years of the 40 Years of the 40 Years,” Kristen Wiig plays Maxine Simmons, who tries to gain access to Palm Beach’s exclusive high society in 1969, while Carol Burnett takes on the role of Norma, described as “the grande dame of Palm Beach high society.”

The Saturday Night Live Alum said Entertainment tonight that she was excited about the opportunity to work with the comedy legend.

“I literally said today, 'I still can't believe we're working together,'” she said. “I want to confirm that it's her. I say, 'It's Carol, right? Yes, I mean, it's Carol.'”

“And to me, she's such an inspiration just with her sketch comedy and everything she's done for every person, every woman,” she added. “It was the crew, everyone. I mean, she's just a dream.”

Reservation dogs follows a group of indigenous teenagers in Oklahoma who want to get to California – and decide to do whatever it takes to get the money, even if they have to steal it.

Star Devery Jacobs told PEOPLE in 2021 that she is grateful that Reservation dogsCreated by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, it gives an often marginalized group a chance to shine.

“It's high time that Indigenous peoples were represented on this scale,” she said. “Rarely have we been given the opportunity to tell our own stories. It's so perfect that it's a comedy because our communities are actually so funny. And no one in Western culture really thinks that Indigenous peoples are anything. [except] this idea of ​​the stoic Indian that was done in old western movies. Or they think of stereotypes like Pocahontas. We didn't have a lot of opportunities to be three-dimensional.”

Created by Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords and based on the 2015 film of the same name, What we do in the shadows follows the everyday lives of four vampires on Staten Island in New York State as they try to fit into the human world – and experience many mishaps in the process.

The show stars Harvey Guillén as Guillermo de la Cruz, Kayvan Novak as Nandor the Relentless, Matt Berry as Laszlo Cravensworth, Natasia Demetriou as Nadja of Antipaxtos, Mark Proksch as “energy vampire” Colin Robinson and Schaal as The Guide, as well as many recurring and one-time guest stars including Beanie Feldstein, Nick Kroll, Mark Hamill, Fred Armisen, Doug Jones, Vanessa Bayer, Haley Joel Osment, Sofia Coppola, Patton Oswalt and Taika Waititi.

Proksch said at San Diego Comic-Con in July that the news that the FX show was ending after six seasons “didn't really change the mood” when they returned to set.

“We all have a lot of fun on set and I think like Matt and Paul said, it's a good time,” he explained. “You don't want to stay too long and you don't want to become a parody of yourself. And I think six seasons is just too much these days. [phenomenal].”

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Watch PEOPLE's full coverage of the 76th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, broadcast live from the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles on ABC.