John Oliver said there’s “only one way” to “move forward” amid his show’s parent company’s pending merger with Trump-friendly company Skydance Paramount.
“Total denial,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview on Friday.
The legal hurdles Skydance faces before the deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery can go through have bought the host some extra time before having to face the music. “Nothing’s happening, and everything has stayed the same,” Oliver added.
Earlier this month, a federal judge halted the $110 billion deal at the request of 12 state attorneys general who argued the deal would “extinguish competition” in the industry.
The 23-time Emmy-winning HBO host, 48, said he can’t predict what will happen next. “Who knows? I have absolutely no idea, which is almost helpful to the fact that I do not have any ability to control anything that happens with this merger.” His plan for how Last Week Tonight will handle it, however, is already decided: “We’ll just do what we’ve done—which is continue like it isn’t happening.”
In the meantime, Oliver will be sticking around for at least another year, as it was reported on Friday that he signed a 12-month contract extension to keep the show on the air through the end of 2027.
Billionaire David Ellison won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery in February, after Netflix declined to match a higher $111 billion counter-bid. Ellison has been cozy with Trump throughout the year, even throwing a dinner to “honor” the president in April.
His company’s acquisition of Paramount brought about the MAGA-friendly revamp of CBS News and ushered in the end of Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show, as that cancellation was announced just days before the Trump administration approved the sale.
Oliver hasn’t backed off, however, regularly dedicating his show’s segments to torching his “prospective business daddies,” as he put it on Friday, since the deal was announced.
“Hey, what’re they gonna do? Take us over and immediately cancel us?” he quipped in March, and then added, “I’m genuinely asking.”
