John Oliver Takes ABC To Task Over 'Doctor Odyssey's' Limbo

On this week’s Last Week Tonight, John Oliver took up a critical issue: the President’s attacks on the free press. Mostly, Oliver recounted what we have written about nearly every day since the new administration took office: the lawsuit it settled with ABC, the capitulation of The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, kicking the AP out of the briefing room, and the lawsuit against 60 Minutes, among others.

Because Oliver likes to break up his screeds with doses of humor lest we all fall into a black hole of despair, he also took a moment (at the 45-second mark) to agree with the President’s characterization of ABC as a “disaster,” though Oliver agrees for different reasons: because it’s left Doctor Odyssey in limbo while renewing Will Trent and The Rookie.

“What the f**k are you doing, ABC? It’s sexy ER on a boat! It’s The Pitt with sharks! It’s got—and I’m not even going to try and beat their tagline on this—‘big deck energy.’”

Oliver also took a shot at two long-running ABC series, The Rookie and Will Trent.

“How is ABC renewing shows called The Rookie and Will Trent—whose premise is apparently just, ‘despite being dyslexic, he’s become a Special Agent in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,’ but they haven’t renewed the only show brave enough to answer the question, ‘What if sick, but boat?’”

“I shouldn’t complain about the other shows. I shouldn’t care that a show called and about a rookie is returning for its premise-defying eighth season, and I don’t begrudge any audience members for sticking around to find out if their favorite characters will or won’t Trent. All I’m saying is, ABC’s The View has been on since 1997, and Doctor Hot Boat is still in limbo.”

“You’re a disgrace, ABC!” Oliver concluded. “Your network is a disaster!”

For the record, as expected, Oliver also mocked his parent network for changing its name back to HBO Max.

“Incidentally, earlier this week, my parent company apparently said they cannot wait for my ‘hot take’ on this whole rebrand, believing that whatever I said about this change was going to be ‘pretty hot.’ So, please, look me in the eyes when I say this: ‘F**k you, don’t tell me what to do. I’m not going to do it if you want. Unless, wait, hold on, maybe you thought baiting me like that would be a good way to stop me from doing it. But on the other hand, how could a company be that smart when they’re the same people who came up with so many STUPID F**KING NAMES.”