John Oliver Skips Skydance Takeover Talk as $111bn Deal Closes
John Oliver had nothing to say about his new boss on Sunday's Last Week Tonight.
The HBO host made no mention of the approval of David Ellison's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery or its rebranding as Skydance Corp., according to Variety. Not a word. The omission came one night before the deal was due to become official.
Instead, Oliver spent the main segment on the history of Secret Service protection for the president of the United States. The piece closed with a spoof recruitment film starring Adam DeVine and Anders Holm as hopeless agents.
The timing mattered. The $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery was set to close on Oct. 6. The new parent will be called Skydance Corp., a group that brings together Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery.
The quiet marked a break from recent weeks. Oliver has needled the Ellisons on air. On the Sept. 20 episode he cracked jokes at the expense of Paramount Skydance chief executive David Ellison and his father Larry Ellison, according to Variety. The next night, during an extended segment on UnitedHealth Group and why customers dislike the insurer, timed to Luigi Mangione's upcoming sentencing, he called David Ellison his "soon-to-be business daddy," according to Mashable.
He has also spoken on the show about his concerns over Paramount Skydance's proposed purchase of Warner Bros. In August he mocked DC superhero films, including Supergirl, after a run of weak box office results. In a separate YouTube segment titled 'Bari Weiss', he discussed the merger alongside the appointment of Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News.
For new viewers, the set-up is simple. Last Week Tonight is HBO's weekly comedy that takes one long story each Sunday night. It has won 32 Emmy Awards, according to HBO. Its executive producers are John Oliver, Tim Carvell, Liz Stanton, Jon Thoday and James Taylor.
For the crew, the future is settled for now. Oliver and the Last Week Tonight team extended their contract with HBO through 2027 just before the merger was finalised. That keeps the weekly current-affairs comedy on HBO while the ownership changes above it. The writers' room gets to finish its stories.
What makes this stand out is the pause. A host who has joked about the buyer for months let the closing pass without a punchline.
