So far in season five, Hacks has moved expeditiously, summarizing the blowback to Deborah’s fiery (and final) late-night monologue, bringing back familiar faces, and breezily establishing what goal Ava will attempt to accomplish with her friend and collaborator: headlining a show at Madison Square Garden. Tonight’s episode, “Number One Fan,” immediately introduces another hard-as-nails industry veteran—Alanna Ubach’s Amanda Weinberg, the steely booker for the Garden—and a new obstacle, which is also Amanda Weinberg, who doubts that Deborah has MSG-levels of appeal. Despite praising her stint on Late Night, she thinks Deborah would be better suited for Radio City Music Hall or Webster Hall. Poor Damien lugged that Jeroboam of wine around New York for nothing.
There’s barely any time to register Amanda’s comments that, in order to play the World’s Most Famous Arena, you have to be “the center of the cultural conversation.” And even though she’s having another very public feud that she hopes will see her “[take] down Bob Lipka, and his censorship of me, and [speak] truth to power,” it can’t readily be said that Deborah currently occupies that position. Leaking video from the not-so-secret comedy show in order to get around what’s effectively a gag order was an ingenious move on Ava’s part, but “Number One Fan” gives no indication that it did spark discourse beyond the initial wave of reactions. But if we’ve learned anything about Deborah (or Ava, for that matter), it’s that she thrives on being underestimated. So, after making one last bribe—er, bid—to win Amanda over, Deborah heads back to Las Vegas to galvanize her fan base to lead a grassroots campaign on her behalf.
The Little Debbies’ fervor is legendary, having previously taken down snack-food retailer and mid-range designer websites, and we just got another taste of their devotion in “EGOT.” But when Deborah arrives at her booth at the Day Of 100 Stars Vegas convention, the air is thick with resentment. Ava gets more love in these early moments as she meets her first fan, Cindy (Leanne‘s Hannah Pilkes), who follows her around the convention center, lavishing praise and making astute observations. “It’s kind of crazy how you’ve changed the whole trajectory of her career,” Cindy notes, which, despite the reveal at the end of the episode, is a fair assessment and also precisely the reason I’ve felt Ava was ready to take the lead more. Obviously, Deborah did a lot of the work herself, but she would have never reached the first-woman-late-night-host level without Ava challenging her to be more introspective and trusting. Now, it took a lot for Ava and Deborah to get here, and with the finale less than two months away, I’m hardly eager to see the team break up. But I’m glad to see someone point this out to Ava, even if it was all a ploy for Cindy, “a third-generation Little Debbie,” to get Deborah for herself.
