The Prescience of HBO Max’s ‘Hacks’; Eisenhower Must Pay a Former Employee at Least $1.6 Million–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: July 21, 2025

Indy Digest: July 21, 2025

(Note: This intro contains spoilers regarding the last few episodes of the most recent decision of Hacks. If you have not watched these episodes yet, but intend to, you may want to skip to the “From the Independent” section.)

Hacks—the fabulous HBO Max Max HBO Max show starring Jean Smart as revered standup comic Deborah Vance, and Hannah Einbinder as Ava, Vance’s young writer—is one of my favorite TV series.

The main storyline of the most recent season, the show’s fourth, involves Deborah Vance achieving her lifelong professional dream, one she almost achieved but lost decades ago: She becomes a network late-night talk show host. As the season progresses, she and Ava hone their show’s formula (with lots of drama, of course), to the point where Late Night With Deborah Vance becomes the top-rated late-night talk show. Along the way, we learn that if Deborah hadn’t become the new host of Late Night, there may not have been a continuation of the show at all—because late-night talk shows are dying, declining in ratings and ad revenue.

In the season’s penultimate episode, the head of the network demands that Deborah fire Ava for leaking the news that the network had censored part of an interview. Deborah declines to fire Ava—and goes out in a flame of glory, resigning on the air. In the last episode, an erroneously posted obituary of Deborah blames her for basically killing off the late-night genre.

The storyline’s prescience, given last week’s news that CBS/Paramount has canceled the Late Show With Steven Colbert—as of the conclusion of the upcoming TV season—is stunning. Late night shows really are in a steep decline. Stephen Colbert’s show is No. 1 in late night—yet it was cancelled, just days after Colbert criticized the network for paying Donald Trump $16 million to settle a ridiculous lawsuit. The network is saying late night’s decline, not Colbert’s criticisms, are to blame for the end of the Late Show.

Now there’s speculation that Colbert’s cancellation could be the beginning of the end of late night talk shows—like Deborah Vance’s firing/resignation was, in the world of Hacks.

But there’s a big difference between reality and HBO Max’s fiction: Deborah Vance resigned/was fired on the spot. Colbert has 10 more months to go before his Late Show is over.

The New York Times’ Jason Zinoman writes:

Getting canceled may end up being the best thing that ever happened to Stephen Colbert. The same cannot be said for its impact on late night television.

Consider that Conan O’Brien turned into a folk hero after NBC took away his time slot and that David Letterman hit the height of his popularity after he didn’t get the job as host of “The Tonight Show.” Until last week, Colbert, host of “The Late Show,” was the ratings leader of an art form in decline.

Then CBS, citing economic issues, announced that his program would go off the air next May, news that came at a time when its corporate parent, Paramount, needs the government’s approval for a merger with the Skydance company. Now Colbert, one of the most prominent critics of President Trump, seems to many like a comedic martyr. For the next 10 months, his show will have a spotlight in a way it never has before. He will not only have a chance to continue to make fun of the president, but he also will be setting himself up for his next act.

I have not been watching Stephen Colbert as of late—but I’m certainly going to be watching now.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• The ICE raids that have been occurring in the Coachella Valley and across Southern California (and beyond) have not been done by just Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Our partners at Calmatters answer the question: “Who are the people rounding up immigrants in California?” New pieces of legislation also deal with this query: “Many residents may assume these masked agents are officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But that’s not always the case. Many of them belong to the Border Patrol, the agency that traditionally has policed the nation’s border with Mexico. But the Trump administration sent officers from other agencies to Los Angeles, too, including the FBI and special tactical teams from the Department of Homeland Security not widely seen until now. Democrats in California’s Legislature have proposed measures to unmask the federal agents. Senate Bill 627, the ‘No Secret Police Act,’ seeks to prohibit all local, state and federal officers from using masks with some exceptions. SB 805, the ‘No Vigilantes Act,’ would require that officers clearly display their name or badge number. It’s disputed whether the state can regulate federal officers and law enforcement agencies are lobbying against the proposals. Federal regulations state that ICE and Border Patrol agents should identify themselves when arresting someone ‘as soon as it is practical and safe to do so.’“

• Also from Calmatters: The race to become the Democrat who will ultimately face Rep. Ken Calvert next year is becoming quite crowded—and a new frontrunner may have emerged: “Katherine Aleman, an Inland Empire public-school teacher and part-time chicken farmer, is the latest Democrat to join a crowded field of challengers hoping to unseat 41st Congressional District Rep. Ken Calvert, the longest-serving Republican in California’s congressional delegation. The race against Calvert, who for more than 30 years has represented Riverside County, will be one of the most closely watched in the nation as Democrats push to retake control of the U.S. House in 2026. The congressman, a Trump loyalist, has been a perpetual white whale for Democrats despite his controversial votes to overturn the results of the 2020 election. This time, Democratic insiders are bullish that Aleman—a mother of four sons who teaches middle school in Corona—will be the one to break their cycle of losses. … Aleman’s supporters, who include former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, say her deep roots on the western side of the district—where more than 70% of the population is—differentiate her from her competitors.”

• When some of the nation’s biggest law firms capitulated to Donald Trump and his threats, “a corps of ‘little guys’ jumped into fight him.” as The New York Times says. Some details: “President Trump’s executive orders seeking to punish big law firms have led some of them to acquiesce to him and left others reluctant to take on pro bono cases that could put them at odds with the administration. But as opponents of the White House’s policies organized to fight Mr. Trump in court on a vast range of actions and policies, they quickly found that they did not need to rely on Big Law. Instead, an army of solo practitioners, former government litigators and small law firms stepped up to volunteer their time to challenge the administration’s agenda. ‘I don’t know if the administration knew how many little guys are out there,’ said Michael H. Ansell, a solo practitioner in Morristown, N.J., who earlier this year joined the Pro Bono Litigation Corps, newly launched by Lawyers for Good Government, a legal nonprofit. He answered the nonprofit’s plea for lawyers willing to give at least 20 hours a week to an upcoming case. More than 80 volunteered.“

• Harvard University and the Trump administration squared off in court today. It’s safe to say the president didn’t like how things went. Politico reports: “Harvard is seeking to restore more than $2 billion in funding from the federal government after the Trump administration launched a review of roughly $9 billion in grants and contracts with the university over accusations that Harvard violated the rights of Jewish students, including during demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Barack Obama in 2014, heard arguments Monday morning in the case, the latest in a series of standoffs between the university and the White House. ‘She is a TOTAL DISASTER, which I say even before hearing her Ruling,’ Trump wrote in the post to his social media platform, Truth Social. ‘She has systematically taken over the various Harvard cases, and is an automatic “loss” for the People of our Country!’ … Burroughs sided with Harvard last month in a separate lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to revoke the institution’s ability to sponsor international students.”

• Today’s recall news involves … above-ground pools! And this is a biggie, considering what’s happened leading up to the recall. ABC News says: “Millions of above-ground pools sold at major retailers nationwide are being recalled following the deaths of nine children, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Bestway, Intex and Polygroup, along with the CPSC, announced the recall of approximately 5 million pools on July 21, citing a drowning hazard. The CPSC said it believes there have been nine deaths of children between 22 months old and 3 years old after the kids gained access to the pools through footholds created by the pools’ compression straps. The children’s deaths occurred between 2007 and 2022 in California, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Texas and Wisconsin.“

• And finally … live life to its fullest, and never pass up a chance to show appreciation for your loved ones. These were some of my thoughts when I heard about the sudden and shocking death of Malcolm-Jamal Warner. The Associated Press reports: “Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who as teenage son Theo Huxtable on ‘The Cosby Show’ was central to a cultural phenomenon that helped define the 1980s, died at 54 in an accidental drowning in Costa Rica, authorities there said Monday. Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department said Warner drowned Sunday afternoon on a beach on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. He was swimming at Playa Cocles in Limon province when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean. … Warner created many TV moments etched in the memories of Generation X children and their parents, including a pilot-episode argument with Cosby about grades and careers, and another episode where Theo tries in vain to hide his ear piercing from his dad.” R.I.P.

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