John Oliver is “not happy” with HBO‘s decision to delay sharing clips of Last Week Tonight on YouTube.
Deadline reported in February of this year that starting with the Season 11 premiere of Oliver’s show, HBO would not share the main story segment on YouTube the following day as it had done until then. Instead, the premium cable network would delay the video until Thursday after the show aired to drive up subscribers to the Max streaming service.
“It’s massively frustrating to me,” Oliver said on The New York Times podcast The Interview. “I was not happy with it at all.”
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Oliver wants the topics he discusses on his weekly talk show to reach the most people possible, and sharing clips of the show on social media platforms help reach new audiences.
“What I love about having the show on YouTube is that we can reach beyond HBO subscribers,” Oliver said. “That feels really important to me. I really, really appreciate the fact that they do that. I would rather they did it straight after the show the way we’ve always done it, but I’m very grateful that they are willing to still do it at all.”
Oliver has been vocal about his displeasure over HBO’s decision and has expressed on social media that he hopes the network will change its mind.
“I know I usually share a link to our main story here on Mondays, but HBO has decided they’re going to wait until Thursday to post them to YouTube from now on. I hope they change their mind, but until then, you can see our piece about the Supreme Court on HBO, on MAX, and on YouTube in a few days,” Oliver shared on X, the micro-blogging digital platform formerly known as Twitter, in February.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver continued its Emmy-winning streak at the award ceremony, taking another accolade in the Outstanding Scripted Variety Series category. The show won for its second consecutive year in the relatively new category at the Emmys. Before that, the Oliver-hosted late-night show won seven consecutive years in the Outstanding Variety Talk Series category.