Last Week Tonight & John Oliver in the Media

[ebk57]

Thanks!!  I didn't realize that Nov 9 was the last date in 2014 -- that sucks on many levels.  Alas!!  Thanks for the info and I will look into the non-LWT dates.

 

ETA: Sonofabitch!  The weekend I'm in NYC he's in frakking North Carolina!!

 

Which is funny because the weekend I'm in North Carolina, he's in NYC!  At my favorite theatre...

[nowandlater]

This is a weird complaint, but I'm sick of John Oliver.

 

Well, I do love him and enjoy his show. But I'm tired of every Monday morning, seemingly every website automatically tweeting out their embedded Last Week Tonight video of every segment.

 

Tweeting it out like it's the greatest video ever.

 

To compound the problem, John Oliver (I think) doesn't take any weeks off. What I mean is, when he does take a week off, he'll post a "web exclusive" video that will get every website talking on Monday.

 

So it's been like 6 months worth of Mondays where it's Oliver this, Oliver that.

 

This doesn't happen with Colbert or Stewart -- so you know which of their segments are truly good, when they're linked everywhere.

 

Anyways, this website created a "John Oliver video sweepstakes" to see which website was benefitting the most by linking to his videos.

http://www.theawl.com/2014/11/the-john-oliver-video-sweepstakes-week-2

 

I just hope Oliver takes an actual week or two off (no "web exclusives"!) so that we'll learn to miss him.

[Athena]

I just hope Oliver takes an actual week or two off (no "web exclusives"!) so that we'll learn to miss him.

 

Good news for you is that this week's episode is the last of the season. The show won't return until February, but then it'll be 35 episodes.

[Fremde Frau]

For John's sake and for the sake of the show, I'm enjoying the almost unanimously positive coverage while it lasts (and trying my best to ignore the accompanying dismissals of TDS/TCR) because the "shut up, John; you're a journalist because we say so, and you are the champion we've been waiting for" has already begun, and I imagine it will only get uglier. That tension seems to be the legacy of TDS. But it's been so exciting to see LWT leap to must-watch-TV status almost instantly. I don't think they're likely to take the coverage too seriously, but I do hope John and his crew enjoy all of the appreciative warmth that the fans and the media express.

 

It's hard to believe we're already at the last episode of the season! I hope there is some way to purchase the show in DVD format.

[Victor the Crab]

Well nowandlater, if you thought you were sick of Ollie's videos popping up the day after each LWT episode, then you must be clinically terminal of every video popping up the day after every episode of The Tonight Show Starring The Living Embodiment Of Ebola, Jimmy Fallon.

[trow125]

OMG Victor the Crab, I feel like the Grinch every time I sneer at those "Tonight Show" videos popping up in my social media feeds: "Jimmy and Jon Hamm have a pie fight," or "Jimmy and Kaley Cuoco play with Lincoln Logs," whatever. Thank goodness the cynics among us still have Jon and John.

 

One thing about the ubiquity of LWT videos on Monday mornings: I find myself watching LWT live every single week, because I like to be surprised by John's topics and bits. I don't want to see every media outlet from Slate to Time.com plugging the latest "must-watch clip" of John grooving with a giant space sex gecko, or the Supreme Court reenacted by dogs, before I've had a chance to discover it for myself. So those merchants of clickbait are making me stay up late every Sunday night to avoid spoilers. (And tomorrow LWT won't come on 'til 11:15 -- grr.)

[Hanahope]

Darn, going to miss John Oliver for the next couple of months.

[Irlandesa]

This doesn't happen with Colbert or Stewart -- so you know which of their segments are truly good, when they're linked everywhere.

 

Maybe it depends on who you follow but I still see more TDS and Colbert Report videos show up on my feed than LWT.  John might have more per show videos but TDS and TCR usually have one or two segments per week that go viral. 

 

Viral is clearly valuable for some reason, otherwise HBO wouldn't make as much of the show available as it does. 

[nowandlater]

Maybe it depends on who you follow but I still see more TDS and Colbert Report videos show up on my feed than LWT.  John might have more per show videos but TDS and TCR usually have one or two segments per week that go viral. 

 

Viral is clearly valuable for some reason, otherwise HBO wouldn't make as much of the show available as it does. 

 

 

That's exactly my point -- there is now selectivity in what Daily Show and Colbert Report segments get posted over the course of each week.

 

But there is no selectivity with John Oliver videos: They are all great!!!

 

But when everything is great, it's hard for something truly, truly great to stand out.

 

 

[Fremde Frau]

But isn't that a great problem to have? In my opinion, TDS and TCR have maintained an extraordinarily high standard for a very long time, and LWT is their worthy little sibling. By the time John returns next year, Larry will be hosting his own show, too. Think of how spoiled we are that they all fumble so rarely! I'll take that problem for as long as it lasts. ;)

[peeayebee]

John and Cookie Monster!

Edited November 11, 2014 by peeayebee

[trow125]

John Oliver Is Outdoing The Daily Show and Colbert
By Matt Zoller Seitz (Vulture.com)

Not that I agree with everything in this piece... but it's an interesting read.

[dusang]

Did John sit down with Tony Abbott?  When?

[Fremde Frau]

I'll never understand how or why people forget all about TDS field pieces, contributor pieces (especially Wilmore's), and extended or otherwise serious interviews. There's this alternate reality that has spread like wildfire since LWT first started, as though TDS is only the length of a single monologue and that it's only reactionary, never proactive or thoughtful and certainly never uncomfortable for liberals/Democrats, in its selection of topics. Never mind about Colbert's many informative-yet-hilarious segments. You know, I fucking love John and this show, and I really want to unequivocally enjoy every positive article about LWT, but ones like these that are specifically focused on negative comparisons of TDS and TCR are almost always either poorly researched or deliberately reductive in order to make their arguments stronger.

 

But carry on, internet and media. I guess that's what y'all do best together. I'm going to go and rewatch John shoot some salmon at celebrities, Colbert troll Wheat Thins, and Jon apologize to Dick Molpus.

[peeayebee]

Looks like Seitz misremembered the Tony Abbott piece, which I just rewatched with much pleasure.

 

 

I don't find anything to disagree with in that article. 

[purist]

 

Did John sit down with Tony Abbott?  When?

 

No, he didn't. There was the delicious takedown of Abbott, but it wasn't a sit-down interview.

[shok]

John Oliver Is Outdoing The Daily Show and Colbert

By Matt Zoller Seitz (Vulture.com)

Not that I agree with everything in this piece... but it's an interesting read.

 

I think the author disqualifies himself from writing this type of article with his very first sentence. "I haven't watched an entire episode of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report in months."

[Kromm]

Everyone else see Oliver come back and do a special one-off Daily Show hosting appearance (with Stewart there promoting his movie)?

[dusang]

Everyone else see Oliver come back and do a special one-off Daily Show hosting appearance (with Stewart there promoting his movie)?

 

I did!  It was pretty cute -- I was a little surprised that Jon wasn't interviewed.

[Victor the Crab]

Everyone else see Oliver come back and do a special one-off Daily Show hosting appearance (with Stewart there promoting his movie)?

 

Saw it right from the start. It was awesome!

[Fremde Frau]

It was the best thing on TDS this week, easily tied with Carell's appearance!

[Irlandesa]

John Oliver Is Outdoing The Daily Show and Colbert

By Matt Zoller Seitz (Vulture.com)

Not that I agree with everything in this piece... but it's an interesting read.

Definitely an interesting but I do think it's not quite a fair comparison.  John Oliver's show is more journalistic in its ability to take deep looks at specific, underreported stories and spend a good ten minutes on them.  That's what LWT wants to be.  It is not what TDS or TCR want to be. 

 

Otherwise, I find myself in a similar boat as the author in that I haven't watched TDS in a very long time. (I never watched TCR regularly even though what he does is genius.) I probably haven't watched TDS since Oliver left, actually.  I don't know if it's because of a quality drop as I've faded in and out over the years or if it's because LWT gives me a similar fix but isn't as much of a time commitment. 

[trow125]

Here's a really good piece about LWT from the New York Times. I like that the writer admits right up front that he was wrong: 

When HBO announced last fall that John Oliver, a British comedian I very much admire, would be hosting a weekly show focused on current events, I remember thinking, “That will never work.”

 

[Sharpie66]

I just this great article: Yet Another Study Shows US Satire Programs Do a Better Job Informing Viewers Than Actual News Outlets

 

It talks about Colbert and TDS, but most of it is spent with John Oliver's show.

[ALenore]

Huffington Post called Last Week Tonight the best show of 2014: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/08/last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver-best-show-2014_n_6284074.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

 

From the article:

 

Seen as HBO's attempt to cut a slice of "The Daily Show" pie (hosted by a "The Daily Show" alum, no less), "Last Week Tonight" debuted to mild fanfare. The 1.4 million viewers who caught the April 27 premiere gave HBO something to celebrate, but the glory is in the details: By September, Oliver's show amassed an average 4.1 million viewers, including DVR, on-demand and HBO Go streams. That puts "Last Week Tonight" ahead of the 4 million that 11-year-old "Real Time with Bill Maher" averages, and creates an impressive wave within the sea of must-see Sunday television. But the real rubric by which we should measure "Last Week Tonight" is the one it conquered most handily: the online water-cooler.

 

 

I didn't realize the ratings had gone up as much as they did.  

Edited December 9, 2014 by ALenore

[peeayebee]

I've seen the show on other best-of 2014 lists too. Well deserved.

 

I miss it. :(

[trow125]

Congratulations to John Oliver for being named "The Left's Sneering Cosmopolitan" by the right-wing National Review! (I haven't seen the story, just the cover)

[ottoDbusdriver]

Congratulations to John Oliver for being named "The Left's Sneering Cosmopolitan" by the right-wing National Review! (I haven't seen the story, just the cover)

 

That's awesome.  Yay John !!!

 

It has to be driving the right-wing nuts that he and his staff are on to the ploys they use to rig elections and control local governments and implement policies written by thinktanks and interest groups.  If the CEO of Hobby Lobby can try to introduce his own version of religious curriculum to schools, there's something really wrong that it can even get to that stage without somebody saying "Hold on, wait a minute, that's not right.".

Edited December 18, 2014 by ottoDbusdriver

[dusang]

Congratulations to John Oliver for being named "The Left's Sneering Cosmopolitan" by the right-wing National Review! (I haven't seen the story, just the cover)

 

I realize that it is probably a name and not a descriptor but I have to love the topline of that cover "BLACKMAN on Obama".

[Kromm]

John and Cookie Monster!

Yeah, I somehow missed this one.  The comedy team of Monster & Oliver is great (they've done several things together now!)

[dusang]

Not entirely on topic but LWT writer Kevin Avery co-hosts a podcast with W. Kamau Bell called "Denzel Washington is the Greatest Actor of All Time Period" and it is pretty fantastic.

[lambertman]

Press release for season 2 has just ben sent out by HBO. It confirms a 35-episode second season.

[Kromm]

The Verge: John Oliver talks net neutrality, salmon cannons, and the future of Last Week Tonight

[ALenore]

Last Week Tonight won the Writers's Guild Award for Best Comedy/Variety Series, beating out The Daily Show, Inside Amy Schumer, The Colbert Report, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Saturday Night Live, and Real Time with Bill Maher. I think this is quite impressive considering this is his first year, and considering the quality of a lot of the other shows he was up against.   

[ottoDbusdriver]

Awesome news -- it's been renewed for Seasons 3 and 4

 

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/02/17/last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver-renewed-for-seasons-3-4-by-hbo/364390/

[Kromm]

Awesome news -- it's been renewed for Seasons 3 and 4

 

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/02/17/last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver-renewed-for-seasons-3-4-by-hbo/364390/

That's called the "make sure he doesn't defect back to Comedy Central" maneuver.

 

Not that it was likely, since he seems pretty happy where he is, but it ends the speculation and gives a clear sign that he's totally got the creative control he needs right where he is.

[dusang]

Yeah, a friend and I had a conversation where she thought CC might put up enough money to bring him back to TDS but seeing the ads in Uruguay and the shirts in Togo, I knew he'd never go back.

[peeayebee]

Maybe this doesn't really fit here, but when I read about it I thought about LWT and how I would love to see Oliver tackle it -- Why Big Corporations Would Rather Waste Billions of Dollars Than Give It To Workers.

 

 

Companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index spent $104.3 billion on planned stock buybacks in February, which is almost twice what they spent last year and is the most since data tracking began in 1995. Buying back a company’s own stock shares decreases the number of available shares and therefore inflates the value of each that remain, enriching the shareholders who already own them….

 

Stock buybacks don’t do anything, however, to increase actual company productivity or performance. These companies collectively hold $1.75 trillion in cash and marketable securities, according to Bloomberg, an impressive sum. But as the figures on buybacks show, little of it is being reinvested in the companies themselves.

 

My right-wing BIL recently went on a mini-rant about raising taxes on corporations, saying it's wrong because these men are job creators. No, I thought to myself. They're hoarders.

[purist]

Nice interview with John in the Australian media today. Among other things, he talks about leaving TDS, about his wife, and about the stories he's done on Australia.

[purist]

Tangential, but does contain some stuff about LWT and John Oliver: a good recent article from Australia about Andy Zaltzman.

[dusang]

Not really "the media" but I just saw this delightful fan-made "John Oliver Temper Tantrum" supercut and it's so fun.  Enjoy!

 

[Kromm]

One thing to appreciate in that is how well he's trained himself out of some of the natural rants/tantrums for an Englishman.  Not a "bloody" or "wanker" or such to be heard!

[ALenore]

Last Week Tonight just won a Peabody Award http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/15/peabody-awards_n_7073234.html  Yeah!

[peeayebee]

Well deserved!

[dusang]

What do the Peabody Awards recognize?  The article just says they are "media awards" but doesn't specify what the recipients excelled at in order to win  Effective reporting?  Comedy?  Cultural impact?  What did LWT win for?

[peeayebee]

Here's the Peabody Awards site.

Among the many things we claim about media, it is, ultimately, a place for storytelling. Through electronic media, we recognize and engage each other with the stories we tell and the stories we attend to there. The Peabody Awards exist to recognize when storytelling is done well in electronic media; when stories there matter.

 

These are stories that engage viewers as citizens as well as consumers. By recognizing specific programming, the Peabody Awards spotlight instances of how electronic media can teach, expand our horizons, defend the public interest, or encourage empathy with others. Such excellent stories exist across genres and media types, and across regions and borders.

 

[ottoDbusdriver]

Congrats to Ollie and everyone that works on the show.

 

This makes the second 'The Daily Show' alumnus to win a Peabody -- Colbert already has two.

[Kromm]

The Peabodys are relatively a big deal, because they've got a pretty good history of rarely to never going to fluff (unlike most other awards, including Emmys and Golden Globes).

[Eegah]

Plus, Mystery Science Theater 3000 got one.

[dusang]

I get that it's prestigious, I just find it odd that there's so little clarity as to what they won for or who they are competing against.  The award for LWT is identified and categorized no differently than that for Inside Amy Schumer and Jane the Virgin.  Is there even a finite number of awards to be distributed?

Edited April 22, 2015 by dusang