Since 2014, former The Daily Show correspondent turned temporary host John Oliver has headlined his own show over at HBO, Last Week Tonight. The weekly program, which undoubtedly set the stage for similarly non-daily topical comedy series like Full Frontal With Samantha Bee on TBS, has since become a beacon of late night television. Hence why, unsurprisingly, HBO announced on Tuesday they had renewed Last Week Tonight for three more seasons of 30 episodes each — meaning Oliver and company will be researching, writing, producing and performing even more 20-minute deep dives.
In a press release, HBO Programming President Casey Bloys said they were “thrilled to have John Oliver as an integral part of the HBO family and to continue to share his comedic brilliance with the world.” What’s more, he added, the British comedian’s “extraordinary genius for rich and intelligent commentary is second to none.” Meanwhile, Oliver refuted Bloys: “First: I firmly disagree with everything Casey just said. Second: 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. We’re incredibly proud of all of you, and rather than tell you that to your face, we’d like to do it in the cold, dispassionate form of a press release.”
With seven episodes left to go before the current fourth season comes to an end, Last Week Tonight is about to head to the 2017 Primetime Emmy Awards for the third time. In 2016, the program won three of its five nominated categories — Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series, Outstanding Variety Talk Series and Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming. This year, Oliver’s show has received eight nominations, and has already taken home two Creative Arts Emmys.
