John Oliver has been a staple of late-night television for 20 years. Times have changed since he debuted on The Daily Show, and now as host of Last Week Tonight, but Oliver remains a crucial part of the genre. However, there is one thing that would make Oliver walk away from it all.
Late-night TV doesn't appear to be on stable footing these days. Shows like After Midnight and The Late Late Show have been cancelled, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is next to get the ax. Networks claim financial losses are behind the decision, while others argue that politics has played too big a role in what happens behind the cameras.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver debuted on HBO in 2014. Since then, the premium television network has been in the hands of multiple different corporate owners. Despite the leadership changes, Oliver hasn't had to deal with the same level of corporate interference as his colleagues, including Stephen Colbert.
"We’ve not experienced interference, and I refuse to worry about something that hasn’t happened yet," Oliver told The Hollywood Reporter. "My tolerance level, were it to, would be zero. This would be over real quick."
It's admirable to hear Oliver say he would rather walk away from his award-winning late-night show than bow down to corporate politics. The working theory is that Paramount chose not to extend Colbert because of his comments criticizing the company's settlement with President Donald Trump. Others suggest Paramount wanted to get in Trump's good graces to facilitate its merger with Skydance.
But these are the types of things Oliver doesn't have to worry about at HBO. Or, at least, things he chooses not to think about. "We are fortunate enough to be in a very different situation than network commercial TV, so those corporate pressures are not comparable, and we have no pressures from advertisers."
And what about his corporate bosses getting cozy with Trump world? Oliver dismissed any concern about Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav socializing with Ivanka Trump. The Last Week Tonight host isn't sweating it until it actually affects the show. And once again, Oliver made it clear he'll have no tolerance for any such scenario.
"I try to pay as little attention to what is happening outside of our show as possible because it feels like wasted energy," Oliver shared. "The moment that intrudes on our show, I will react very badly to it, but it hasn’t. So, yeah, I try not to get angry about things that aren’t happening to us.
For now, Oliver's plan is to continue what has made him a prominent voice in late-night and a draw for HBO. That means biting the hand that feeds when the mood strikes. It's a lesson he learned from watching David Letterman mock CBS, and something he has seen colleagues like Colbert and Jon Stewart continue. The only difference is that Oliver appears to be free of the consequences that have cost other late-night hosts so much.
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