Say goodbye to any slim chance for John Oliver to make a triumphant return to The Daily Show because HBO just renewed Last Week Tonight for two more seasons.
The premium cable network announced that it has given Oliver’s weekly news satire show third and fourth seasons, each including 35 episodes. Season three will run in 2016 and season four will premiere in 2017.
“We are incredibly proud to have John as part of the HBO family,” Michael Lombardo, president of HBO Programming, said today. “His unique ability to deliver socially significant commentary week after week, along with his innate comedic brilliance, puts John in a class by himself.”
Last Week Tonight airs on Sundays at 11 p.m. and returned for its second season on Feb. 8.
Oliver got the show after his successful turn at The Daily Show desk while Jon Stewart took summer 2013 off to make a movie. Since Stewart announced he was retiring at the end of this year, there may have been hope among fans that Comedy Central could somehow get him back, but Oliver must really like being able to use the f-word without getting bleeped.
Since Last Week Tonight premiered last year, several segments have gone viral and the second season is on track to be just as good. Last week, he managed to get Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa so angry that Correa called him an “oxymoron” with “little nuts.”
This week, he took aim at the tobacco industry and got #JeffWeCan to trend on Twitter.
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