'Last Week Tonight' YouTube Release Delay Eliminated After John Oliver Called It "Massively Frustrating"
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Last Week Tonight With John Oliver kicked off its new season Sunday on HBO and Max. To fans’ surprise and delight, the episode also was made available on YouTube the same night.
This is a reversal of the release pattern HBO implemented last season, pushing the release of each new Sunday night episode’s main story on YouTube from the following Monday to the following Thursday in an effort to drive up subscribers to the Max streaming service.
The move triggered backlash among fans and was called “massively frustrating” by Oliver. HBO made an exception for Last Week Tonight‘s pre-election episode last November.
That episode’s main segment, in which Oliver spoke of “the damage of a second Trump term,” urging everyone to vote for Kamala Harris, was released on YouTube shortly after the show had aired on the linear HBO network on the West Coast.
