John Oliver took some jabs at HBO Max on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight — which airs on HBO, of course.
The comments come two weeks after parent Warner Bros. Discovery was criticized for its decision to shelve Batgirl. Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that CEO David Zaslav opted to postpone the project to seek a tax write-down on the $90 million film. Meanwhile, several other series and movies have also been taken off streamers as part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s plan to merge HBO Max and Discovery+ into one service.
On Sunday night’s episode of Last Week Tonight, Oliver referenced the write-down during a segment about former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin running for the state’s House seat in a special election. Is.
Oliver quoted from an August 16 New Yorker story: “Sarah knows how to make the crowd work… but it’s Sarah, Inc.” He called “Sarah, Inc.” Before mocking HBO’s famous slogan “It’s Not TV,” sounds like the title of a sitcom starring Kat Dennings that has already quietly disappeared from HBO Max. It’s HBO.” Oliver added: “HBO Max. This is not TV. It’s a series of tax write-offs to please Wall Street.”
Earlier in the segment, Oliver mentioned that Palin is running for office and has been giving her deja vu from 14 years ago. “Looks like it’s 2008 again: [Palin] is running for office, the U.S. has entered a bear market, and the Sex and the City spinoff is making that it clearly has a back up. Not content to do,” Oliver joked, showing off the first Sex and the City theatrical film and marketing posters for both the recent revivals of HBO Max and Just Like That. He said that the society is going backwards.
Two weeks ago, during a segment on untested COVID-19 vaccines, Oliver criticized Batgirl’s decision. “We let vaccines sit on a shelf in our stores like unused Chobani or a $90 million movie on HBO Max. By the way: Hello, new business dad. Looks like you’re doing a really good job. I have a vague understanding that you are burning my network for insurance money, but I am sure this will all pass,” he said.
Oliver often criticized previous parent company AT&T, when it owned HBO, also referring to it as “Business Daddy”. He had previously slammed And Just Like That for going ahead without original star Kim Cattrall.