Moviefone Editorial

Tag: last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver

  • Late Night Hosts to Return After End of Writers’ Strike

    (Left) Jimmy Kimmel. Photo: ABC/Jeff Lipsky. (Center) 'Tonight Show' host Jimmy Fallon. Photo: Todd Owyoung/NBC. (Right) Stephen Colbert from 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.' Photo: CBS.com.
    (Left) Jimmy Kimmel. Photo: ABC/Jeff Lipsky. (Center) ‘Tonight Show’ host Jimmy Fallon. Photo: Todd Owyoung/NBC. (Right) Stephen Colbert from ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.’ Photo: CBS.com.

    When the writers’ strike began in May, it meant that all the Late Night talk shows had to shut down, since they employ Writers Guild of America staff to write monologues, questions for guests and skits for the hosts to appear in.

    Plus, the hosts themselves are WGA members and would not cross picket lines to work.

    Yet with the Writers and the AMPTP, which represents the studios sealing a successful deal, the WGA officially ended the strike at midnight today (Wednesday 27th September). And that means that the hosts of ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’, ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ and ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ will all be back on Monday.

    Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is returning Sunday, and the hosts are wrapping up their podcast Strike Force Five. It takes a few days for their shows to ramp back up to production, book guests and other necessary work.

    What was Strike Force 5?

    'Late Night with Seth Meyers' host Seth Meyers.
    ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ host Seth Meyers. Photo: Lloyd Bishop/NBC.

    During the strike, Oliver, Kimmel, Fallon, Colbert and Meyers created a podcast called ‘Strike Force 5’ that they hosted, with proceeds from paid subscriptions going to the crews who needed support while the different shows were shut down.

    “Their mission complete, the founding members of Strike Force 5 will return to their network television shows this Monday 10/2 and one of them to premium cable on 10/1,” said the hosts in a statement.

    They followed up with a typically humorous summation of the whole situation:

    “Of course, in a greater sense, the Strike Force 5 will never end because Strike Force 5 is not a place, Strike Force 5 is not a people, Strike Force 5 is barely a podcast, nay Strike Force 5 is an idea. An idea five men could talk on top of each other for 12 episodes and maybe somebody would listen. As we say goodbye, we would like to thank all those somebodies, truly, you were the heroes. We were mostly the heroes, but you were in there, too. We want to thank the entire Strike Force 5 team, our wives, our special guests and apologize to Conan O’Brien, who agreed to do the pod, but Stephen forgot to send him any possible dates and the strike ended.”

    Related Article: Writers Guild Makes Tentative Deal with Studios to End Strike

    The Bill Maher issue

    Bill Maher and Andrew Yang on 'Real Time with Bill Maher.'
    (L to R) Bill Maher and Andrew Yang on ‘Real Time with Bill Maher.’ Photograph by Janet Van Ham/HBO.

    Some of their fellow talk show hosts, the daytime likes of Drew Barrymore and ‘The Talk’ team had planned to come back before the strike ended but curtailed that idea after public backlash and comments from Guild members.

    Bill Maher, host of HBO’s ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ is usually something of an opinionated instigator and not known for going with the flow.

    He announced via social media on September 13th that he was planning to bring his show back on September 22nd.

    Here’s Maher’s original statement:

    “‘Real Time’ is coming back, unfortunately, sans writers or writing. It has been five months, and it is time to bring people back to work. The writers have important issues that I sympathize with, and hope they are addressed to their satisfaction, but they are not the only people with issues, problems, and concerns.”

    There was predictable backlash from those who knew he would be crossing strike lines to work on the show himself, and Maher later announced that he would be pressing pause on the plan to return.

    He will now be back on Friday this week.

    This was Maher’s announcement:

    “My writers and Real Time are back! See you Friday Night!”

    Steve Bannon and Bill Maher on 'Real Time with Bill Maher.'
    (L to R) Steve Bannon and Bill Maher on ‘Real Time with Bill Maher.’ Photograph by Janet Van Ham/HBO.

    Movies Affected by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA Strike:

    Buy Jimmy Fallon Movies On Amazon

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  • Emmys 2017: John Oliver Seriously Got #DCPublicSchools Trending, Immediately

    69th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards - ShowThis is power.

    HBO’s “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” won Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series at the 2017 Emmy Awards. In his speech, John Oliver referenced presenter Dave Chappelle‘s quip from earlier in the night, thanking DC public schools.

    Oliver said he too wanted to thank DC public schools, just to get that trending for no real reason. So he asked fans at home to tweet #DCPublicSchools.

    And they did.

    Pretty much immediately, #DCPublicSchools got itself trending in the U.S.

    Between the two of them, Dave Chappelle and John Oliver could get fans to tweet or do anything, and that was the chosen topic of the night. But every Sunday night, Oliver gets fans tweeting and talking about even more serious issues — in his own cheeky way — and that’s why he keeps winning.

    Here’s the full list of winners at the 69th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

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  • John Oliver’s Hilarious ‘Last Week Tonight’ Promo Teases 3 Other HBO Shows

    “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” Season 4 is going to have an absolute field day with the politics of 2017, but HBO’s new promo takes a much lighter tone. It also cleverly teases three of its other returning shows in the same minute-and-a-half spot.

    The promo starts with a clear look at the “Game of Thrones” Iron Throne as a voice-over teases, “In 2017, HBO’s biggest Sunday night show returns…” And out pops John Oliver, mistaking the promo to mean his show. Nope! They also don’t mean “Last Week Tonight” when teasing “the fourth season of HBO’s smash hit comedy.” Instead, “Silicon Valley” star Kumail Nanjiani mocks Oliver as “an acquired taste” at best.

    Kumail Nanjiani: “Sometimes we don’t want a British man yelling at us about how the world is ending for a whole hour.”

    John Oliver: “Well, it’s a half an hour show.”

    Nanjiani: “Doesn’t feel like it.”

    HBO also does not mean “Last Week Tonight” when promoting “the long awaited return of the HBO show everyone’s been waiting for.” Nope. That’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which has been away for five years. Why? Because, as Larry David explains, he’s been “busy.” With “things.”

    Here’s the promo:Despite the typically self-deprecating tone, fans are dying to see John Oliver again in “Last Week Tonight,” which returns Sunday, February 12 at 11 p.m. on HBO.

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  • Daylight Saving Time Is Stupid, Says ‘Last Week Tonight’ (VIDEO)

    last week tonightYou’re probably still complaining about the lack of sleep you received thanks to Daylight Saving Time, and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” also has a bone to pick with the tradition.

    The satirical HBO show took a swing at the out-of-date practice in a segment entitled “How Is This Still A Thing?,” lamenting that the twice-yearly changing of the clocks does nothing for humanity other than confuse them about how to adjust the time on their microwaves. And the conventional wisdom that it was a practice invented for farming is false, too, the segment claims.

    Check out the video below — which highlights the fact that it was the German military, not American farmers, who spearheaded the practice — and just try to argue with “Last Week Tonight’s” logic. We may not think that cows are just stupid creatures (that one at the 1:03 mark is pretty adorable), but the rest of the segment’s sentiments seem sound.

    [via: Last Week Tonight]

    Photo credit: YouTube
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  • HBO Renews ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ for 2 More Seasons

    John Oliver, Last Week Tonight
    HBO knows how to hold on to a good thing: The cable channel has renewed buzzy show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” for two more seasons.

    The former “Daily Show” star left Comedy Central for his own gig at HBO last year, and quickly established himself as a giant in the comedy-news genre. His tenure at “Last Week Tonight,” which began in April 2014, has been marked by critical praise and viral videos galore, making his renewal a no-brainer.

    “We are incredibly proud to have John as part of the HBO family,” said HBO head of programming Michael Lombardo in a statement. “His unique ability to deliver socially significant commentary week after week, along with his innate comedic brilliance, puts John in a class by himself.”

    Season three will premiere some time in 2016, and season four will debut in 2017. Each season will consist of 35 episodes.

    “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” is currently in the midst of its second season. It airs Sundays at 11 p.m. on HBO.

    [via: Deadline]

    Photo credit: Eric Liebowitz/HBO

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