Hard Ball

"Hard Ball"
30 Rock episode
Jenna's spread in Maxim, in which she is named the "4th Hottest Woman in Comedy"
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 15
Directed by	Don Scardino
Written by	Matt Hubbard
Cinematography by	Vanja Černjul
Production code	115
Original air date	February 22, 2007 (2007-02-22)
Guest appearance(s)
David Alan Basche as Alan Gregg Bello as The Daily Show Producer Katrina Bowden as Cerie Xerox Kevin Brown as Dot Com Slattery Tucker Carlson as Himself Grizz Chapman as Gris Griswold Rachel Dratch as Martha Blanch Chris Matthews as Himself Keith Powell as Toofer Spurlock Lonny Ross as Josh Girard Gregory Wooddell as Mike
Episode chronology
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30 Rock (season 1) List of 30 Rock episodes

"Hard Ball" (also known as "Negotiation") is the fifteenth episode of NBC's first season of 30 Rock. It was written by one of the season's co-producers, Matt Hubbard, and directed by one of the season's supervising producers, Don Scardino. It aired on February 22, 2007 in the United States. Guest stars who appeared in the episode were David Alan Basche, Gregg Bello, Katrina Bowden, Kevin Brown, Grizz Chapman, Rachel Dratch, Keith Powell, Lonny Ross and Gregory Wooddell. Tucker Carlson and Chris Matthews also appear as themselves in the episode.

The episode focuses on Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) trying to clear her name after being misquoted in an interview for Maxim Magazine. Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) begins negotiations to Josh Girard's (Lonny Ross) new contract. Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) becomes the newest member of Tracy Jordan's (Tracy Morgan) entourage.

When Josh's contract is due for renewal, Jack enters negotiation mode. Jack is looking to save money with the negotiations outcome, so Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) warns Josh to be careful. Later, thinking Josh is ill, Liz goes to order some soup and on her way, sees Josh. He meets with a producer from The Daily Show, which angers Liz, who decides to help Jack negotiate. When Josh and his agent return to negotiate, believing that an offer from the Daily Show was on the table, Jack promptly reveals that he was able to get the offer from the Daily Show pulled and thus leave Josh with no negotiating power. Jack then offers Josh the same terms as his previous contract, but Liz, upset that Josh was not made to suffer for his "betrayal" by speaking with another show, orders Josh to start doing the worm.