If you were waiting to hear John Oliver give his signature satirical look at the week's pressing political, social, and cultural issues this Sunday night, you're going to have to wait a while longer—there won't be a new episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver airing tonight, April 28.
But the show's absence from this evening's HBO schedule is no real cause for concern—as with other weekly programs like Saturday Night Live, Last Week Tonight regularly takes breaks from filming throughout its season. Since premiering the show's eleventh season back on February 18, the late-night talk show has already taken a week off for a mini break in late March.
Similarly, the program will return with a new episode, the season's 10th installment, next week on Sunday, May 5. Given how meticulously researched the show's various segments are, it's not a surprise that the powers that be would want to give Oliver and the writers a break from filming every now and then.
Oliver and the team behind Last Week Tonight announced that there would be no new episode tonight via the show's social-media handle, posting on Twitter: "There’s no new episode this week! But we still have current events. From 10 years ago. This Sunday we’ll be dropping all of season 1 for free on YouTube! Seasons 2-8 to come, whenever we don’t have a new episode. Trust us, some of this is still completely relevant. Some."
The YouTube news comes after some posting controversy regarding the HBO show: back in February, the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned network announced that it would cease sharing the main feature and other segments from Last Week Tonight on the show’s YouTube channel the following day, under the guise of wanting people to instead stream the show on Max if they weren't watching live on HBO. Segments instead are now posted to the YouTube platform on Thursday following each Sunday ep.
It's unclear whether the recent news means that there will be a change in the program's YouTube uploading schedule, but at the very least it means content on the weeks when Last Week Tonight with John Oliver doesn't air a fresh episode.
To watch Last Week Tonight with John Oliver live each Sunday, you’ll need access to HBO—thankfully, the channel is available with most cable TV subscriptions. However, if you've cut the cord, you have watch live simulcasts of HBO channels via several live TV streaming service options, including Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream. You also have access to HBO programming through the network's streaming platform, Max.
