‘Last Week Tonight With John Oliver’ Renewed For 3 Seasons At HBO, Deal Runs Through 2026
EXCLUSIVE: Fresh from helping the pūteketeke become the Bird of the Century, John Oliver has another reason to celebrate.
HBO has renewed Last Week Tonight for a further three seasons, taking the weekly show through 2026.
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The new deal, which runs through Season 13, comes as the tenth season of the late-night show is coming to a close later this month. The show had a truncated season as a result of the writers strike – airing just over two-thirds of its normal episode count as a result of the labor action – but Oliver still managed to explore timeshares, psychedelic therapy, homeowner associations, abortion rights, the Israel-Hamas war, dollar stores and the Tennessee Adult Entertainment Act as well as most recently organ donation.
His crowning achievement this season, however, was his campaign for the pūteketeke. The New Zealand contest had to be delayed for a couple of weeks due to the overwhelming number of votes that Oliver helped bring in, buying up billboards across the world as well as a plane in Brazil. The competition normally attracts around 60,000 votes but the spotlight – including Oliver’s appearance on The Tonight Show – meant that around 350,000 votes were cast with more than 290,000 of them going to Oliver’s new favorite bird.
“We’re very happy to get to keep making this show with our fantastic staff,” said Oliver. “We will continue trying to stretch the term ‘entertainment’ to the breaking point.”
“Over the past decade, John and his exceptional team have combined deep research and intelligence with cutting humor to tackle a broad range of subjects, both widely discussed and unconventional.” said Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO & Max Content. “With an important election year on the horizon, we look forward to seeing what John has in store for audiences over the next three years.”
Oliver’s last deal was unveiled in September 2020 and ran through the end of 2023.
He becomes the latest late-night host to renew his deal; Stephen Colbert signed a new three-year deal earlier this year and Jimmy Kimmel signed a similar one last year.
The show is produced by Avalon and Oliver’s Sixteen String Jack Productions. Oliver, Tim Carvell, Liz Stanton, Jon Thoday and James Taylor are exec producers with Paul Pennolino as director.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver has won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Talk Series category seven years in a row, starting in 2016, essentially every year it’s been eligible since Jon Stewart left The Daily Show. However, this year, the show will not compete against the likes of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, but is in a new category – Outstanding Scripted Variety Series, where it will compete against Saturday Night Live and the fourth and final season of A Black Lady Sketch Show.
Oliver is represented by WME, attorney Leigh Brecheen at Brecheen Feldman Breimer Silver & Thompson and Avalon.
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