A John Oliver HBO comedy series — brilliant idea! The comedian will give a fresh satirical look at politics and current events in a Sunday evening comedy series coming to HBO this spring. At the Television Critics Association 2014 Winter Press Tour in Pasadena a sprightly Oliver took the stage and gave credit to The Daily Show and Jon Stewart for landing him his new gig.
“I think it was probably the main reason why I’m here now,” Oliver says. “It was a bizarre, exciting, and terrifying experience. … I set myself the achievable goal of just not destroying that particular franchise. So the fact that it’s still there and Jon is still doing it — I took that as a W in the win column.”
He took another W in the win column for ending what was a long day of non-stop press sessions and being the most entertaining session of the day. When a critic asked if he was going to be around in the morning to see Sarah Palin as she’s hosting a breakfast with Sportsman Channel to promote her new travel series Amazing America With Sarah Palin, Oliver quipped: “Good for her. So she has a new show on the Sports Channel, does she? She’s going to do to sports what she did to politics.”
Oliver did get sincere when discussing how Stewart has served as a mentor to him.“He has been invaluable over the last seven and a half years of my life in almost everything,” Oliver says. “So I talked to him about this decision, and he’s been amazing. He’s absolutely as a comedian, I’m almost allergic to sincerity, but he has been incredible.”he writers.
Oliver is bringing The Daily Show head writer Tim Carvell with him to HBO to run the show with me.
