r/lastweektonight • u/Rleduc129 • 12d ago
In all seriousness, what would happen if Zaslav decides to can Oliver and Last Week Tonight?
For many, we would probably call for his resignation or even storm (unlikely) WBD headquarters.
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u/Sparkyisduhfat 12d ago
It would be insane to end his show because it gets good ratings and wins all of the awards, both of which makes hbo look good. If they did end his show he could very easily just go to another network or streaming platform/youtube. He already has a sizable audience on YouTube.
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u/charrsasaurus 12d ago
Yeah no doubt, The show won so many awards so often in so many times in a row that they basically kick them out of categories just to give other people a chance
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u/Anglofsffrng 12d ago
It's weird, British, and keeps winning to the point the governing body changes the rules to disallow it. Last Week Tonight/John Oliver is the Lotus Seven of talk/news comedy shows.
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u/RandomlyMethodical 11d ago
Some other network would pick him up by the next day.
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u/Sparkyisduhfat 11d ago
Seriously. It was such a huge mistake by Comedy Central not to nail him down and give him a show as soon as he was done subbing for the daily. Though I’m glad he went to hbo, he has a ton more freedom there
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u/bargman 12d ago
We really don't need to do that.
He had enough of a fan base. He could go independent of he wanted.
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u/Dominos_fleet 12d ago
LWT Patreon would be 1 million + day one.
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u/charrsasaurus 12d ago
He would do perfectly fine doing that yes but his budget would probably go down a lot. I have to imagine his budget right now is more than he would get off patreon.
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u/Weekly-Act-3132 12d ago
I think CEOs like to make money and he do that. Its why I have HBO max as a streaming service and im not that unique.
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u/BrainOnBlue 12d ago
I can guarantee that programming decisions are not made at the CEO level.
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u/Kammander-Kim 11d ago
though they can be. If the CEO is adamant to keep or kick a specific program, it will influence the people whose job it is to make the decision to make said decision.
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u/benwhipps 12d ago
Even with all of the money he wastes on rat erotica his show is probably super cheap to produce and it's got good prestige name value.
I doubt it would be axed
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u/SessileRaptor 12d ago
Excuse me, no money spent on rat erotica is ever wasted.
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u/JunketPuzzleheaded42 12d ago
Why would they fire him? He makes them money.... That's his job
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u/DekMelU Lupusthefowldevil 12d ago
In case he espouses views that are not consistent with what the execs want. That's apparently what happened with Jon Stewart's Apple show
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u/charrsasaurus 12d ago
If they haven't fired him or at least screamed at him for the way he treats " Business daddy" on a regular basis I'm not sure they will but he could immediately launch the show on YouTube everyone would subscribe.
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u/Dominos_fleet 12d ago
The only thing I turn my sub to HBO on for is Oliver and Dragons.
The Dragons last season was pretty shit (not bad but should have been 10 episodes and it seems like they're taking liberties with an already built story again which...is not good and doesn't bode well for the future of the show).
If they get rid of Oliver then the likelihood of me not renewing without another change goes up to 90+%.
If Dragons continues to be shit /shrug. I'm mostly resigned to that show failing(from a quality perspective) at this point. "long live bran the broken" i guess.
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u/sketcyverbalartist11 12d ago
They’re starting another GoT type series for Jon Snow that’s not House of the Dragon (which is the equivalent of the last season of GoT) I believe trailers are already out
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u/Dominos_fleet 12d ago
I know there's a dunk and egg series about to come out, I thought the Jon Snow series got nixed.
Regardless both sound kinda awful.
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u/sketcyverbalartist11 12d ago
Ooh, I didn’t know they were going to do Dunk & Egg! I’m a bit chuffed to hear that!
It honestly may not be Jon Snow bc he’s on that show Industry, I just remembered seeing a title that wasn’t HoTD & thinking HBO is trying to justify spending so much to make 3 dragons that they’ll revive any story line for a cash grab
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u/HereforFun2486 12d ago
him constantly winning awards keeps him on air also being relatively cheap to make compare to other shows so he’s fine if he keeps winning emmys
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u/Boggie135 12d ago
Why would Zazlav decide to axe Oliver?
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u/sketcyverbalartist11 12d ago
If anything, John would try to get out of his contract. Business Daddy isn’t giving him or his staff proper raises like they did for many other shows that brought in subscribers.
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u/TrayusV 11d ago
Canning the show isn't a good idea, considering how much money it makes.
Also, canceling the show will just result in another network picking it up. If you remember, Brooklyn 99 was cancelled for like 2 days before another network swooped in to buy it, because it's a popular show that had great ratings.
This is to say, when you throw away the golden egg, someone else is going to pick it up.
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u/Bruinwar 11d ago
The only reason I pay for my HBO is Last Week Tonight. Cancelled for sure if John was cancelled. If I really wanted to see something else (which is very rare) I would download it & feel damn good about it.
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u/jdgetrpin 10d ago
You can join other fans of cancelled HBO shows. We’re still pushing for his resignation for cancelling Our Flag Means Death. He better not cancel Last Week Tonight, but I also wouldn’t be surprised. Zaslav is the worst.
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u/TheTwoOneFive EAT SHIT BOB 12d ago
I'm not sure why he would do that, lwt is relatively inexpensive to make and I believe still gets decent viewership.