Hacks TV Show Trivia
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60 free Hacks TV Show trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Hacks TV show trivia quiz covers all five seasons of the HBO Max comedy, from Ava's fateful tweet and Deborah's Palmetto residency to the tour bus, the My Bad special and the late-night years. The easy questions cover the leads, the streaming service, the casino, Marcus, Jimmy and Kayla. Medium questions dig into the plots — the British producers' email, the dumb phone, the lesbian cruise, Weed and the ashes, the QVC sellout and the audience member who dies mid-taping. The hard and expert questions are for people who watched the credits: the road trip where the show was born, Paulilu, Universal Television, Jean Smart's Salem ancestor and Marlene Dietrich role, Hannah Einbinder's SNL mother and Colbert debut, and Megan Stalter's Ohio improv beginnings. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation, so the names, dates and plot points can be trusted. Difficulty is shown on every question, which makes it easy to build a round for a TV quiz night or play the whole set. When you finish, try our other comedy series quizzes.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who plays legendary Las Vegas comedian Deborah Vance in Hacks?
Jean Smart
Jean Smart. Three years into playing a veteran stand-up she got a real monologue of her own, hosting the premiere of Saturday Night Live's 50th season in September 2024.
Q 02Who plays Ava Daniels, the young comedy writer sent to work for Deborah Vance in Hacks?
Hannah Einbinder
Hannah Einbinder. Her first stand-up set came at college, when Nicole Byer played the campus and asked if anyone on the improv team wanted to open for her; Einbinder volunteered.
Q 03On which streaming service did Hacks premiere in May 2021?
HBO Max
HBO Max. The service was not yet a year old; it later dropped 'HBO' from its name for two years and then took it back, so the show ran under two names without ever moving.
Q 04At the start of Hacks, why does the casino's boss begin cutting Deborah Vance's show dates?
To draw a younger crowd
To draw a younger crowd. Losing her weekend dates to newer acts is what pushes Deborah to meet the out-of-work young writer her manager sends to Las Vegas.
Q 05At which Las Vegas casino does Deborah Vance hold her long-running residency in Hacks?
The Palmetto
The Palmetto. Its boss, Marty, buys out her contract the morning after their one-night stand and tells her the residency is over.
Q 06Why is Ava unable to find work in Los Angeles at the start of Hacks?
An insensitive tweet
An insensitive tweet cost Ava a lucrative TV deal, but her former colleagues later tell her the real reason nobody wants to work with her: she is selfish.
Q 07Who plays Marcus, the COO and later CEO of Deborah's company?
Carl Clemons-Hopkins
Carl Clemons-Hopkins's Marcus quits Deborah's company in season four and returns only as her equal, when the two go into business together on an old Las Vegas casino in the final season.
Q 08Who plays Jimmy LuSaque Jr., the manager Deborah and Ava share?
Paul W. Downs
Paul W. Downs's Jimmy quits his agency on principle, is later forced back into its mailroom, and ends the series running the place after catching his old boss embezzling.
Q 09Who plays Kayla, Jimmy's chaotic assistant turned co-manager?
Megan Stalter
Megan Stalter's Kayla is the daughter of Jimmy's boss; when Jimmy quits the agency in season two, she defies her father and walks out with him to help start a firm of their own.
Q 10Who plays Deborah's daughter DJ in Hacks?
Kaitlin Olson
Kaitlin Olson's DJ secretly sells unflattering paparazzi photos of her own mother; Ava discovers that Deborah knows all about it and lets it go on so that DJ can earn a living.
Q 11What is the name of Deborah's estate manager, played by Rose Abdoo?
Josefina
Josefina runs Deborah's Las Vegas mansion for the whole series and follows her into her last venture, joining the staff of the casino hotel Deborah opens in the finale.
Q 12What is Kiki's job in Hacks?
Deborah's personal blackjack dealer
Deborah's personal blackjack dealer gets flown across the country in season two: when the new act keeps bombing on tour, Deborah summons Kiki to Memphis to break the cycle.
Q 13What is the profession of Wilson, Marcus's love interest?
Water inspector
Water inspector Wilson ends things at the close of season one because Marcus cannot make room for a life outside work; Marcus hides the split for months and gets a puppy to cope.
Q 21In Hacks, which comedy legend does Deborah meet, playing herself, in a cardiologist's waiting room before her late-night debut?
Carol Burnett
Carol Burnett appears in season four after Deborah has a panic attack at her dress rehearsal; their talk steadies her, and on the night she gets through the monologue by focusing on Ava.
Q 22Why did filming on the third season of Hacks pause for a few weeks in February 2023?
The star's heart procedure
The star's heart procedure was later revealed to be a triple bypass: she sensed something was wrong on set, finished her scene without telling anyone, then went straight to hospital.
Q 23In Hacks, Deborah offers a sexist club host $1.69 million on stage to do what?
Q 14Which Oscar winner plays network executive Winnie Landell in seasons three and four?
Helen Hunt
Helen Hunt's Winnie Landell is the executive who champions Deborah for the talk show, and Deborah repays her badly: one complaint to Winnie's boss about the push for a spin-off gets Winnie fired.
Q 15Which Scandal star plays Bob Lipka, a top executive at the conglomerate that owns Late Night?
Tony Goldwyn
Tony Goldwyn's Bob Lipka spends a night with Deborah just before she lands her talk show, a secret Ava later turns against her; by the final season he is buying up her tickets out of spite.
Q 16In the Hacks series finale, Deborah takes Ava on a last holiday to which European city?
Paris
Paris was meant as a farewell trip for the gravely ill Deborah, but riffing on jokes with Ava at the station changes her mind: she heads home for treatment and one last special.
Q 17After Bob Lipka buys every ticket to her Madison Square Garden show, where does Deborah perform for free instead?
Central Park
Central Park hosts the free show days later, and it outdoes the arena: more than 30,000 people turn up, which the show calls a record crowd for stand-up.
Q 18Hacks beat which reigning champion to the 2024 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series?
The Bear
The Bear had taken the prize eight months earlier, while Hacks had lost its first two nominations to Ted Lasso; the win finally came for its third season.
Q 19To dodge her non-compete clause in Hacks, Deborah performs stand-up through a translator at a casino resort in which Asian city?
Singapore
Singapore turns into a months-long residency, but Deborah drifts into drinking and partying until a false report of her death, with an obituary calling her retired, shocks her back to work.
Q 20In Hacks, Ava forces her way into which job on Deborah's talk show?
Head writer
Head writer: Deborah offered her the job, then took it back, so Ava threatened to expose Deborah's night with the company's boss. Their feud drives season four, which won Ava's actress the 2025 supporting actress Emmy.
Give up comedy forever
Give up comedy forever: she makes the offer from the stage after watching him harass a woman on the bill, he accepts in front of the whole room, and she rules out podcasts as well.
Q 24Which Comedy Central series had the three creators of Hacks all worked on before?
Broad City
Broad City gave two of the trio double duty: its stars asked one to direct the pilot and cast her partner as Abbi's boss, the trainer Trey, before hiring both of them as writers.
Q 25On which reality competition do Deborah and her daughter DJ compete in the final season of Hacks?
The Amazing Race
The Amazing Race hands DJ a spot on a celebrity season, and she insists her mother be her partner; Deborah sees a chance to promote her comeback, and an early exit still brings the two closer.
Q 26Which pop singer performs at Ava's 30th birthday party?
Jesse McCartney
Jesse McCartney plays the party for Ava, who was 25 when the series began; Deborah throws it out of guilt for drunkenly telling her it was weird that she had no other friends.
Q 27What guilty secret is Ava carrying at the start of season two of Hacks?
An email trashing Deborah
An email trashing Deborah, sent after a blazing row to two British producers planning a show about a monstrous boss; when Ava owns up, Deborah keeps her on the tour and sues her for breaking her NDA.
Q 28In Hacks season two, how does Ava try to become a better person?
Gets a dumb phone and stops drinking
Gets a dumb phone and stops drinking: Ava swaps her smartphone for a flip phone and swears off the tour bus liquor cabinet, a clean-living cleanse driven by guilt over betraying Deborah.
Q 29In which desert town, home to Deborah's psychic, does Ava finally confess her betrayal?
Sedona
Sedona is where Deborah's psychic predicts an upheaval, and Ava, unable to keep quiet any longer, supplies it: Deborah explodes, then carries on the tour with her the next morning.
Q 30Which actress plays Weed, the cantankerous manager of Deborah's tour bus?
Laurie Metcalf
Laurie Metcalf's Weed is sacked mid-tour, yet returns in the final season grateful for it: she tells Deborah that being fired led to her relapse and then to her recovery.