John Oliver Calls HBO Decision to Delay ‘Last Week Tonight’ Segments on YouTube “Frustrating”
John Oliver is speaking out on the decision to delay Last Week Tonight segments going to YouTube.
In an interview with The Interview podcast from The New York Times, the late-night host criticized HBO for the rollout change. For the series’ 11th season, the premium cable outlet announced they are now holding back segments from the show for a few days from YouTube after they premiere. Audiences were previously able to watch the show’s main story on YouTube the morning after an episode aired.
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“It’s massively frustrating to me. I was not happy with it at all,” Oliver said of the decision.
He further explained, “What I love about having the show on YouTube is that we can reach beyond HBO subscribers. That feels really important to me. I really, really appreciate the fact that they do that. I would rather they did it straight after the show the way we’ve always done it, but I’m very grateful that they are willing to still do it at all.”
When announcing the decision earlier this year, HBO said they were holding back segments on YouTube is an effort to get more people to stream the show on its sibling streaming platform, Max.
“When Last Week Tonight With John Oliver premiered on HBO, the convenience of watching on Max did not exist, so YouTube allowed flexible viewing for the main story as well as promotional exposure,” an HBO spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter at the time. “We are now delaying that availability and hope those fans choose to watch the entire show on Max.”
When first announced, back in February, Oliver said in a post on X that he had hopes the plan would change: “I know I usually share a link to our main story here on Mondays, but HBO has decided they’re going to wait until Thursday to post them to YouTube from now on. I hope they change their mind, but until then, you can see our piece about the Supreme Court on HBO, on Max, and on YouTube in a few days.”
HBO renewed Last Week Tonight for three more seasons in 2023, which will take the weekly late night show through its 13th season in 2026.
When reflecting on when he’ll ever feel “done” with the show to the NYT, Oliver said he hasn’t gotten to that point yet.
He explained, “I worked with Jon Stewart for a long time. I saw him get exhausted. So I know what that looks like. I saw him reckoning with, ‘I’ve done this in every possible way that I can do it.’ And he was right about that. Like, he can’t really do it any better. I’ve not hit that point yet. I still absolutely love making the show. I get excited, like, to your point, of bouncing up and down in the chairs when we feel like we’re onto something with a story, or we’ve worked out something really dumb to do. It’s so fun. I can’t believe that we get to ram stories down people’s throats that they might not naturally want to hear and that they will watch it, and I can’t believe that we get to play with HBO’s resources and do dumb things on fiscally irresponsible scales. So I guess my answer is that point might come. I don’t feel like I’m there yet.”
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