Last Week Tonight With John Oliver kicked off its new season Sunday on HBO and Max. To followers’ shock and delight, the episode additionally was made out there on YouTube the identical evening.
This is a reversal of the discharge sample HBO carried out final season, pushing the discharge of every new Sunday evening episode’s fundamental story on YouTube from the next Monday to the next Thursday in an effort to drive up subscribers to the Max streaming service. The transfer triggered backlash amongst followers and was known as “massively frustrating” by Oliver.
HBO made an exception for Last Week Tonight‘s pre-election episode last November. That episode’s fundamental section, during which Oliver spoke of “the damage of a second Trump term,” urging everybody to vote for Kamala Harris, was launched on YouTube shortly after the present had aired on the linear HBO community on the West Coast.
At the time, HBO insiders harassed that the fast YouTube launch was a one-off. It is now as soon as once more turning into the norm. The reversal determination, which Oliver had been advocating for, was made after knowledge evaluation didn’t reveal a major improve in Max viewership after implementing the delay, sources stated.
As it’s at all times been the case, solely Last Week Tonight episodes’ fundamental story can be launched on YouTube. Last evening’s episode was an exception as Oliver devoted your entire present to Donald Trump’s first month in workplace and the actions of Elon Musk, whom he known as “a parasitic freak,” and his DOGE group.
As a end result, the total episode was launched on YouTube Sunday evening.