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Oliver slays
‘Last Week Tonight’ is a perfect blend of news and humor
By Kenneth Andeel
TV Media
W
hen John Oliver accepted
correspondent duties at
“The Daily Show” as a fresh-
faced British youngster in 2006,
he could not have dreamed that
he would eventually adapt and
perfect that show’s formula to
create a series that would ulti-
mately eclipse its progenitor.
That’s exactly what he’s done
with “Last Week Tonight with
John Oliver” — he has inherited
the cable comedy news throne
that was once occupied by Jon
Stewart and “The Daily Show.”
Oliver’s version of the late-night
comedy news genre heads into
its sixth season on Sunday, Feb.
17, when its milestone 150th
episode airs on HBO.
“Last Week Tonight” follows
in the footsteps of “The Daily
Show,” exposing the absurdity
of traditional news media, the
24-hour news cycle, and both
niche political factions and the
political elite, while avoiding
cheap-shot accusations through
diligent research and a funda-
mentally journalistic approach.
Oliver got his first serious
taste of hosting duties in 2013,
when Stewart took a 12-week
leave of absence to direct the
film “Rosewater” (2014). Audi-
ences were largely impressed
with Oliver’s fill-in duties, and
executives across the TV world
raced to see who could land
him as a headliner for their
own news comedy show. HBO
turned out to be the best fit, and
a mere three months after his
stint as temporary host, it was
announced that Oliver would be
creating a brand new show for
the premium cable network.
In April 2014, “Last Week
Tonight with John Oliver” pre-
miered, and in the time since its
debut, the show has become a
cultural touchstone and a critical
darling. It has also won multiple
Emmy and Peabody awards for
its humorous-yet-informative
treatment of serious issues —
most recently, the show took
home the 2018 Emmy for Out-
standing Variety Talk Series.
2 | Screentime
John Oliver as seen in “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”
“Last Week Tonight” is espe- apart from similar series in a few allowed them to scour the news
cially notable for taking extra
specific ways. Rather than rush-
landscape for underreported
deep dives into serious issues. If ing through a number of diverse stories and identify niche sub-
“The Daily Show” was a satiri-
topics, he chose to produce
ject matter that had been over-
cal version of the archetypical
longer, more in-depth segments
looked by traditional outlets. It
nightly news broadcast, then
about issues he and his writ-
also meant that when they did
“Last Week Tonight” is more
ers felt strongly about. The fact
cover big news, they were able
like an off-kilter newsmaga-
that “Last Week Tonight” is a
to offer a more comprehensive
zine. It’s not uncommon for a
weekly show also influenced
and considered take after
segment on Oliver’s show to
its tone and content. Oliver and
several days of development,
run between 15 and 20 min-
his colleagues realized that by
differing significantly from the
utes, which is a vast chunk of
the time they got their Sunday
reactionary coverage necessi-
time for a half-hour show to
night shot at the week’s news,
tated by the 24/7 late-breaking
dedicate to a single topic. Seg-
it would have already gone
stories format peddled by other
ments on a serious newsmaga-
through countless iterations in
newsmongers.
zine heavyweight such as “60
the traditional news media, and
Oliver’s influence has become
Minutes” tend to run between
“Last Week Tonight” might be
so pervasive that people have
11 and 13 minutes, and the fact hard-pressed to come up with
coined the phrase “the John
that Oliver and his writers can
something unique.
Oliver effect,” which refers to
outdo that is impressive.
Rather than being discour-
real-world policy decisions that
From the very beginning,
aged by that prospect, Oliver
are influenced by the show’s
Oliver intended to set his show
and his staff felt freed by it. It
dedicated and very loud fan-
February 13, 2019 | East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald
base. There are a number of
credible examples of this occur-
ring: after Oliver ran a segment
on net neutrality legislation and
encouraged his viewers to send
their disagreements to the Fed-
eral Communications Commis-
sion, the FCC’s servers received
such a deluge of comments that
they were overloaded. Similarly,
after Oliver railed against the
unfair and unjust bail system
in New York, the state relaxed
its bail requirements for people
charged with nonviolent crimes.
And after a widely watched seg-
ment skewered the corrupt lead-
ership of FIFA, its long-standing
president resigned in disgrace
shortly thereafter.
Even when Oliver’s segments
don’t result in specific changes,
“Last Week Tonight” has an un-
canny knack for becoming part
of the cultural discourse. One
of the show’s most recent bits
— the “we got him” segment,
which pointed out that Presi-
dent Trump never seems to pay a
lasting political price, no matter
how many fibs he’s caught in —
became a ubiquitous internet
meme in 2018. That segment, as
well as other popular offerings,
are almost sure to return when
Season 6 of “Last Week Tonight”
starts rolling.
Make sure to catch Oliver’s
unique brand of satirical news-
flavored comedy (or comedy-
flavored news?) when “Last
Week Tonight with John Oliver”
returns for a sixth season on
Sunday, Feb. 17, on HBO.