Following the announcement of HBO’s decision to renew Bill Maher’s Real Time with Bill Maher up through 2020, the premiere cable network has decided to give a different politically-geared series the same treatment. President of HBO programming Casey Bloys announced today that Last Week Tonight with John Oliver has also been renewed for an additional three seasons, allowing the show to run with 30 shows each season through 2020.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver stands as one of the most popular political satire series right now, with many of Oliver’s segments regularly going viral in the days following an episode. The show isn’t afraid to include bold coverage, either: Oliver and HBO are currently wrapped up in lawsuit over one of Oliver’s segments that discussed the questionable business tactics of Robert E. Murray, CEO of Murray Energy Corporation.
On Last Week Tonight’s renewal, Bloys stated, “We are thrilled to have John Oliver as an integral part of the HBO family and to continue to share his comedic brilliance with the world. His extraordinary genius for rich and intelligent commentary is second to none.”
Host John Oliver added his own comments, beginning with a joke: “First: I firmly disagree with everything Casey just said.” Oliver continued to emphasize his gratitude over HBO’s decision to renew the show for three additional seasons. “[We’re] very grateful to Richard Plepler, Casey and everyone at HBO for letting us continue to do whatever it is we actually do. And finally: We’d also like to thank our staff for all their hard work.”
Oliver’s series was recently nominated for eight Emmy awards, including Outstanding Variety Talk Series, Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series, and Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. The show has a solid Emmy track record, having won three Emmy awards in 2016 (including Outstanding Variety Talk Series, Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series and Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming) and one award in 2015 for Outstanding Interacting Program.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is currently in its fourth season, with new episodes airing each Sunday night at 11pm on HBO.