Is Last Week Tonight with John Oliver new tonight? What we’re missing
Unfortunately, we are past the point of no return when it comes to episodes of this series being on the air. HBO is done with new Last Week Tonight episodes for the remainder of 2018, which means that you’ll be forced to wait until 2019 in order to see a little bit more of Oliver and his famous long-form segments. More than likely, the new season will premiere in February (on the other side of the Super Bowl) — as has been the case in the past. There are typically around 30 episodes a season, which is still a good bit more than you tend to get for a lot of other scripted comedy shows out there. We know that there’s always this temptation to want to compare this show to The Tonight Show or some other late-night variety show, but we really do not think that this is accurate. This one has so much more research that goes into it, especially since it really bases a lot of its comedy on actual facts only to then surround them with insanity.
Do we wish that there were more new episodes per season? Absolutely, but this is clearly what HBO, Oliver, and the writing staff are comfortable with. (If you missed our video discussing Last Week Tonight and its frequent breaks, take a look at that below — meanwhile, be sure to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube for other updates.)
So what sort of comedy commentary are we missing out on this week? It’s mostly tied to President Trump and his latest comments around Thanksgiving, including his back-and-forth in the press with Chief Justice John Roberts, a man who offered up a rare public rebuke of a sitting Commander-in-Chief’s comments. It feels like this would be a great opportunity to bring back his panel of dogs (and Gritty) for the Supreme Court, which has been a fan favorite from over the years.
In all honesty, though, even if there were more new episodes of Last Week Tonight coming this year, there still would not likely be one tonight given the short production cycle per episode. With Thanksgiving over the past several days, the writers simply were not around to come up with new material. It’s the same reason why there is no new episode of Saturday Night Live this weekend — when you are a show that operates on a fairly short turnaround, these sort of breaks in the action are absolutely necessary.
Related News – Be sure to get some other headlines from across this season
What are you going to miss the most about Last Week Tonight during the hiatus? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments, and stay tuned to get some other information regarding the series. (Photo: HBO.)