The news that President Joe Biden was withdrawing himself from the 2024 election took America, and most of his staff, by surprise Sunday afternoon—but perhaps nobody was more put off by the timing of Biden’s announcement than John Oliver, who recorded his weekly HBO show Last Week Tonight on Saturday this week.
As the show wryly admitted on X, formerly Twitter: “‘Hey, let’s switch our taping day to Saturday, no big news ever happens on a Sunday afternoon.’ — some idiots.”
Oliver didn’t hastily add a new segment to address Biden’s announcement; instead, they simply ran a graphic card before the credits that read “This show was taped on Saturday, July 20th.” And Oliver, in his first show back since June 16, noted in his introductory recap:“the news is moving so fast. We are taping on Saturday and who knows where things will be by the time you actually watch this.”
