Jean Smart’s sitcom Hacks is RENEWED for a third season

The HBO Max sitcom Hacks, starring Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, has been picked up for a third season.

News of the renewal was reported in Variety just two weeks after the acclaimed series aired its season two finale.

Smart, 70, won her fourth Emmy Award for season one of Hacks, which also picked up prizes for its writing and direction.

Cheers: The HBO Max sitcom Hacks, starring Jean Smart (pictured) and Hannah Einbinder, has been picked up for a third season

She stars on Hacks as a pioneering comedian called Deborah Vance who at the start of the show has settled into a comfortable but uninspiring life as a Las Vegas act. 

Meanwhile Einbinder, 27, whose mother Laraine Newman was in the original cast of Saturday Night Live, plays Deborah’s protégé Ava. 

Ava is a rising comedy writer who shortly before the start of season one has been canceled for a joke she made on Twitter.

As Ava struggles to salvage her career and Deborah attempts to revitalize her own, the older established comedian hires the young gun to work for her.

Who’s who: Smart stars on Hacks as a pioneering comedian called Deborah Vance who at the start of the show has settled into a comfortable life as a Las Vegas act

Side by side: Einbinder, 27, whose mother Laraine Newman was in the original cast of Saturday Night Live, plays Hannah’s protégé Ava

The two women have a combative and initially reluctant professional relationship, but as their respect for each other gradually grows, a rapport forms between them.

Created and showrun by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky, Hacks has a principal cast made up of Smart, Einbinder and Carl Clemons-Hopkins.

The supporting cast includes Paul W. Downs, Megan Stalter and Kaitlin Olson, who have all had recurring roles since the first season.

Season two saw the arrival of several high-profile guest stars, including Margaret Cho and Wayne Newton, who play themselves. 

Development: The two women have a combative and initially reluctant equation, but as their respect for each other gradually grows, a rapport forms between them

Other character roles are played by Mulan voice star Ming-Na Wen, Roseanne actress Laurie Metcalf and Susan Essman of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame.

Rave reviews poured in for season two, with Variety rhapsodizing that it ‘doesn’t miss a beat,’ the Washington Post gushing: ‘It’s firing on all cylinders’ and Vanity Fair saying it aims ‘higher and deeper’ than season one.

Smart became a sitcom star in the 1980s as one of the leads of Designing Women, alongside Dixie Carter, Annie Potts and Delta Burke.

She is currently enjoying a flourishing comeback that in addition to Hacks has included the drama miniseries Mare Of Easttown co-starring Kate Winslet. 

Throwback: Smart (second from left) became a sitcom icon in the 1980s with her run on Designing Women alongside (from left) Delta Burke, Dixie Carter and Annie Potts