Hacks Season 4: This unexpected cameo delivered one of the show’s funniest improvised moments - here’s all about it

Season 4 of HBO Max’s Hacks brought the laughs, but nothing quite topped Jimmy Kimmel’s cameo in Episode 5, Clickable Face.

He stole the scene. Fans loved it, not just because he is famous, but because it felt so off-the-cuff and genuinely funny.

Hacks Season 4 dropped on Max on Thursday, April 10, 2025. They kicked things off with two episodes right away, then rolled out a new one each week. You get 10 episodes in total. Episodes 7 and 8 landed together on May 15, and the finale was saved for May 29, 2025.

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A late-night showdown in Hacks Season 4

Kimmel showed up in Hacks Season 4 as a more exaggerated, fictional version of himself in an unforgettable parking lot scene with Deborah Vance (Jean Smart).

Deborah tries to persuade Kristen Bell to join her floundering late-night show, but then Kimmel steps in, demanding that Bell appear on his show first. He riffed through a lot of the lines on the spot, including that now-famous jab:

“I got full custody of Kristen Bell after Conan died.”

He even threw in a pretty sharp, off-color joke about Jimmy Fallon, the kind of thing co-creator Paul W. Downs admitted the writers would never have dared to put in the script themselves.

Jean Smart remembered how nervous Kimmel was in the beginning. She told USA Today:

“My hat is off to him (Kimmel) because he kept saying, ‘I'm not an actor, you guys. Don't expect much.’ He was kind of nervous, and then he was just a riot.”

Later on his talk show, Kimmel admitted that his so-called ad-libbing was really him just forgetting his lines, a lucky mistake that made the scene feel even more spontaneous.

Whether he was switching to an Android so Kristen Bell wouldn’t be the only one with “green bubbles,” or blowing a ton of money on gluten-free energy bars, Kimmel’s improvising took what could have been a forgettable cameo and turned it into one of the funniest moments of the whole season.

Kimmel brought the show’s love for improvisation and real, character-driven comedy right to the front. Sometimes you get unexpected confrontations, other times it’s just a quiet moment between characters. Either way, those guest appearances gave the Hacks Season 4 a jolt.

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What is Hacks Season 4 Episode 5 about?

In Hacks Season 4, Episode 5, Deborah Vance’s late-night show is slipping. Recent numbers show she has fallen to fourth place, and that stings, especially since she is losing ground with women aged 25 to 45. So, they pull together a focus group to figure out what’s up. The comments aren’t exactly helpful. One person says:

“I like when she’s funny, but I don’t like when she’s trying to be funny.”

At first, Deborah brushes it off, but she is anxious, as she knows that group matters a lot for ad money. Instead of sticking to her usual comedic style, she decides to play along and follow the advice.

In Hacks Season 4, she starts tweaking her act to win over those women, pitching ideas like “mommy makeovers,” bringing in a stylist for some clip-in extensions, and basically working hard to seem more down-to-earth, especially to that middle-aged, “mom” crowd.

Still, she can’t hide how annoyed she feels about having to force her jokes to land with a certain group, instead of just being funny in her own way. Ava Daniels isn’t having it. She thinks data is fine, but letting focus group opinions steer the whole creative process is a no from her.

She calls Deborah out for losing the realness:

“We are selling soap. Yes, we have to be funny, but we are also selling soap.”

Deborah doesn’t back down. She points out that she is the one people recognize, the face of the show, and none of those focus group folks even mentioned Ava. It’s obvious at this point: they are pulling in different directions. Ava is after something with substance, something that actually means something. Deborah is focused on what sells: chasing ratings and hitting the right demographics.

Deborah’s manager, Jimmy (Paul W. Downs), and Kayla get stuck with finding a guest who will actually bring in the right crowd. After tossing around ideas, they land on Dance Mom, a viral TikTok star played by Julianne Nicholson. She has a huge following, especially with younger people glued to their phones. Jimmy and Kayla want to use her social media buzz to help Deborah connect with that audience.

Deborah actually hunts down Kristen Bell at a fancy grocery store, with Kristen Bell playing herself in Hacks Season 4. She does everything she can to convince her, flipping between guilt-tripping and trying to be charming, all in the hope that Kristen will come on her show and boost her ratings.

But Kristen has already promised to appear on Jimmy Kimmel, and that throws a big wrench in Deborah’s plan. The next day, Kimmel corners Deborah in her parking lot and doesn’t waste time throwing his weight around.

“K.B. is not doing your show. Everyone knows that when she has a new project, she does my show first. I got full custody when Conan (O'Brien) died.”

Jimmy adds:

“Let’s just say I put in my time. I switched to a Samsung phone so she wouldn’t be the only one with green bubbles. I invested $38,000 in her gluten-free energy bars for Africa or something. I wore a K. Bell-brand organic diaper on a billboard. You think I did that because I’m proud of my body? No, I did it for bookings.”

He keeps going, poking fun at Deborah’s attempts to land Bell and tossing out jokes that remind everyone just how much pull he has, and he doesn’t hold back on the sharp edges. He even takes shots at other hosts, dropping a crude line about Jimmy Fallon.

After the focus group and that awkward run-in with Kimmel, Deborah’s insecurities really start to show in Hacks Season 4. She is stuck between staying true to herself and doing whatever it takes to fix her show. Then she barges into Ava’s personal life, and it’s tense. Deborah crashes Ava’s “throuple” date, tossing out sharp comments that make it clear their work issues are now deeply personal.

Ava gets hurt. She straight-up admits she has stopped telling people to watch the show until it actually gets good. On stage, things hit their peak. Deborah brings Dance Mom onto her late-night show, and together they do this big, over-the-top dance number. It’s cheesy, but also kind of a win, as the crowd eats it up.

But there is more going on in Hacks Season 4. That performance says a lot. Deborah is willing to embrace spectacle, even if it feels fake compared to who she was before, all to win back her audience. By the end, the gap between Deborah and Ava has grown. Ava looks emotional, maybe even betrayed. Deborah seems fired up by the big show, but you can tell she is also more alone than ever.

Their fight really boils down to something bigger: making art versus chasing ratings. Ava calls out the risk; they are just churning out content, not doing anything meaningful. Meanwhile, Deborah feels like she is finally getting what she wants: control and recognition, even if she has to compromise herself to get it.

Hacks is coming back for Season 5, and production kicked off in September 2025. This time, we are still following Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels as Deborah heads back to Las Vegas. After everything she went through in Singapore, and that fake death announcement, her world has flipped upside down.

In this new season of Hacks, Deborah is all about reinventing herself and taking control of her legacy, especially now that people are blaming her for the so-called “death of late-night.”