John Oliver, former correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, finally has a premiere date and title for his upcoming satirical news show on HBO. And on Sunday, April 27th we’ll all be invited to check out Last Week Tonight with John Oliver for the first time.
Oliver’s series falls directly in the funny Brit’s wheelhouse, tackling the week’s news and events with a satirical edge — similar to his myriad bits on the aforementioned Daily Show, which he left back in December. The half hour series will dish on the latest doings in news, politics, and other current events at 11PM each week.
All of this comes on the heels of Oliver’s stint as guest host of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart this past summer when Stewart was overseas filming a movie. Oliver’s time on the show proved he was ready for the spotlight, garnering critical and fan-bolstered rave reviews with ratings to match. So it was far from a surprise when, back in November, it was announced that the It’s-Not-TV network was giving him his own platform.
And Oliver’s exit for the HBO series wasn’t the only poaching that came from The Daily Show: he also took the Comedy Central series’ head writer, Tim Carvell, with him as showrunner and executive producer. In his nearly 10-year long run on the series, Carvell nabbed no less than six Emmy Awards for his writing. So, you know, no pressure or anything! It, all in all, spells good things for the impending series, and we’d be lying if we didn’t say we were super excited.
In case you needed any more convincing on the matter, we’ve included some of our favorite John Oliver-as-host moments, in video form, below.
And just because we’re sentimentalists, a look back at Oliver’s time on the series:
