John Oliver Assures Trevor Noah That ‘Last Week Tonight’ Will Stay the Same Amid WBD Merger Talks

John Oliver has expressed his strong opposition to corporate mergers, regardless of the companies involved. During a recent appearance on Trevor Noah’s podcast, What Now?, the host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight stated, “I think mergers are generally bad. I think you’re always looking for the least bad option.”

One of the most significant potential mergers mentioned involves Netflix and Paramount’s pursuit of a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery. Despite the implications for his show, Oliver does not seem overly concerned about the outcome. The podcast discussion on mergers begins around the 53:00 mark.

Oliver highlighted the complexities of such mergers, saying, “It’s going to get tied up in courts because … there are going to be question marks on all of this, right? Because it’s very hard to justify this legally.” He noted that while it remains uncertain if legal challenges will prevent the merger, he believes there is no value in worrying about something ultimately beyond his control.

Regarding the future of Last Week Tonight, Oliver emphasized, “It feels like we’re just going to do what we do.” He further remarked, “I think you’re always hoping for the least bad option. And I think that the key thing for us is to act with enough, like aggression or confidence. … I will act assuming nothing is going to happen. We’re not going to change, right? I think we’ve been on [and] we’ve been behaving the way we’ve been behaving for long enough that you can’t really reason with us.”