John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight is set to return in a couple of weeks, bringing back all the irreverent coverage of the news you’ve missed.
First premiering back in 2014, Last Week Tonight saw former The Daily Show correspondent John Oliver taking on a comedic hosting role as he covers the news of the world.
Since then, the show has racked up a huge five seasons worth of hilarity, with plenty of Aussie news being thrown in the mix.
In fact, just last year we saw an inexplicable back-and-forth between Oliver and Russell Crowe, with the former buying the jockstrap Crowe used in Gladiator for a wild $9,000.
As a strange thank you gesture, Russell Crowe donated the funds from the sale to the Australia Zoo, where they unveiled their new ‘John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward’ in his honour.
Needless to say, Oliver was stunned, joking he’d have to quit Last Week Tonight now considering he’d achieved all the goals he had set for himself when the series first began.
Check out The John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgRurZ5gdSw
With the series’ sixth season set to air on February 17th (and broadcasting on Monday nights on The Comedy Channel), John Oliver has been discussing his time off the air and what the new series will feature.
As Indie Wire notes, Oliver spoke at a New York City press conference recently where he discussed the story he regretted now being able to cover during his time off the air.
“There was a story about a British family terrorising New Zealand, did you hear about that?,” he questioned. “[Executive producer] Tim Carvell and I were emailing back and forth, going, ‘actually, I wish we were back at work.’”
“We had a couple of weeks off over the holidays, but otherwise, we’ve been working the whole time, researching stories, so there’s been nothing in particular that really felt painful that we weren’t on TV for, other than the barbaric British family in New Zealand.”
Check out a trailer for season six of Last Week Tonight:
On the other side of things, Indie Wire also notes that the new series won’t feature any news about the forthcoming 2020 US Presidential race in the near future.
“We didn’t really touch what was happening with the election until the election year,” John Oliver explained. “I guess it will only be worth it if it feels like there is something a little more substantial we can say about it.”
“Last time, we kind of gave it a pass until the start of that 2016 year. … I do think it’s not particularly helpful, how much attention is paid so early in the primary process. It becomes a bit of a horse race.”
Of course, Oliver also revealed that changing times and technological evolution makes it hard for the show to remain relevant at times.
“The way it is now, everybody’s late to everything,” he explained. “You could be on every day, you’re still technically late because something that happened this morning seems like a long time ago and it’s already been joked about a lot online.”
Whatever the new season consists of, you can bet your bottom dollar that John Oliver will be delivering it with his trademark humour and charismatic nature.
Season six of Last Week Tonight premieres on February 17th, with Aussie audiences receiving the show on February 18th.
Check out Last Week Tonight’s take on Aussie politics:
