John Oliver Torches WBD Paramount Deal: ‘Not Great News’
In his first “Last Week Tonight” monologue since Paramount emerged victorious in the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, John Oliver torched the deal as he prepares to get a “new business daddy” in Paramount CEO David Ellison.
“It turns out we might be getting a new business daddy,” Oliver said during the opening monologue before flashing to the news that Paramount Skydance will take over the WBD acquisition after Netflix backed out of the deal.
“Yeah, not great news,” he continued. “In fact, if I may quote anyone who’s ever accidentally sat on their Roku remote. Oh s–t, I’m in Paramount now. How the f–k do I get out of this?”
Oliver limited his comments on the Paramount news until later in the episode after a joke about Paramount+’s low viewership, exclaiming, “What are they going to do? Take us over and immediately cancel us? I’m genuinely asking.” He then quickly turned back to his discussion on police body cameras.
During the bidding war for WBD, Oliver had previously called Paramount a “soulless, ethically bankrupt ass-kissing corporation” after shredding CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, eventually yelling, “Please stay the f–k away from us. You are not my real business daddy, and you never will be!”
Should the acquisition move forward successfully — which looks to be the case given the Ellison’s ongoing partnership with Donald Trump that enabled the Paramount-Skydance deal to get approval from the FCC — the fate of Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” hangs in the balance given the cancellation of CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
CBS announced in July that “The Late Show” would be ending in May 2026, and cited the “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” though many — including Colbert — have speculated it was politically-motived, given Colbert’s criticism of Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Trump, which he called a “big fat bribe” in order to get FCC approval for the Skydance merger.
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