Anyone who missed the season premiere of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver on Sunday will no longer have to wait until late in the week to watch it on YouTube.
HBO has reversed a policy it put in place last season of holding off on sharing the late-night show’s main segment on YouTube; rather than posting it on Monday, HBO put up the main segment on Thursdays. At the time, an HBO spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter the decision was aimed at boosting viewership on sibling streamer Max: “When Last Week Tonight With John Oliver premiered on HBO, the convenience of watching on Max did not exist, so YouTube allowed flexible viewing for the main story as well as promotional exposure. We are now delaying that availability and hope those fans choose to watch the entire show on Max.”
The decision didn’t sit well with Oliver, who wrote on social media, “I know I usually share a link to our main story here on Mondays, but HBO has decided they’re going to wait until Thursday to post them to YouTube from now on. I hope they change their mind.”
They did: As first noted by LateNighter, HBO put up Sunday’s primary segment, about Donald Trump’s first weeks back in the White House, early Monday morning. As of publication time, the video had 2.4 million views (YouTube counts someone watching at least 30 seconds of a video as a view).
Sources say the delay in posting the show to YouTube last season didn’t have any noticeable effect on viewing of the show on Max. HBO then decided to return to the former pattern, which Oliver prefers.
