Comedy Central's Mistreatment of John Oliver Was a Blessing in Disguise

By Dustin Rowles | TV | February 9, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | February 9, 2024 |

In 2013, John Oliver hosted The Daily Show over the summer while Jon Stewart directed his film, Rosewater. It was a nice arrangement. John Oliver was a popular substitute and Jon Stewart was given some time away from the daily grind of cable news to recharge his battery, not unlike the way Jimmy Kimmel takes the summer off now. If Oliver and Stewart had had their way, the arrangement might have continued for several more years.

Alas, Comedy Central was not interested in keeping Oliver around, according to John Oliver on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. “I didn’t stay at The Daily Show because Jon was still there, and Comedy Central didn’t care about me,” he told Maron on this week’s episode.

“My contract expired at the end of the year that I hosted for Jon over that summer. And I think it became clear at the end of that, that they didn’t really care about me. I think they could have had him for longer if they’d allowed” their arrangement to continue, Oliver said, “But they were not interested in that at all.”

“Which is fine, but it is now painfully obvious,” he continued. “So I should probably go somewhere else.”

There is a universe, in other words, where Jon Stewart hosted through the 2016 election (instead of leaving in 2015), and John Oliver continued to host the show every summer and perhaps even took it over after Stewart left. Ultimately, it all worked out for the best. Jon Stewart is returning to The Daily Show this Monday, and Oliver’s Last Week Tonight has been nominated for 61 Emmys (with 28 wins).

As Oliver has said in a few interviews and reiterated to Maron, it’s those Emmys that keep him on the air. “I appreciate it because it’ll buy us — I think what it probably does for us is buy us existence.”

Source: WTF