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John Oliver fans will no longer have to wait nearly a week to catch new episodes of the comedian’s popular Last Week Tonight series for free on YouTube.
On Sunday, the British comedian, 47, debuted the 12th season of his long-running HBO talk show. By Monday, the episode’s main segment was available to watch on YouTube. The video has been viewed nearly four million times at the time of writing.
This marks a major shift in HBO’s release strategy for Oliver’s news series, as last season, the streamer held off on posting the episode’s main segments on YouTube until the Thursday after they aired.
At the time, an HBO spokesperson explained that the decision was made to boost viewership on HBO’s enhanced streaming service, 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. We are now delaying that availability and hope those fans choose to watch the entire show on Max,” they told The Hollywood Reporter.
Oliver had criticized the delayed release, telling fans on social media: “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.”
It appears HBO has since taken Oliver’s advice.
A source told The Hollywood Reporter that delaying the uploads to Thursdays last season had no noticeable impact on Max viewership numbers.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver has been airing on HBO since 2014. In that time, it has won 30 Emmys.
During the show’s 12th season premiere, Oliver focused much of his attention on ridiculing the first month of President Donald Trump’s second term.
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“We have to dive straight into our main story tonight. The fact that Donald Trump is once again president of the United States. Sorry if this is how you found out,” he began the segment, eliciting boos from the studio audience.
He went on to list some of Trump’s most controversial political moves, including pardoning or commuting the sentences of January 6 rioters, once again withdrawing America from the Paris Climate Agreement, his plans to take over Gaza, the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and his plans to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.
“Incredibly, it has been less than a month since Trump’s inauguration, but it already feels like an eternity,” Oliver said.
