Facing criticism over an upcoming performance at Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Comedy Festival, Louis C.K. is set to return to late-night television for the first time since his 2017 sexual misconduct scandal.
C.K. will be Bill Maher’s lead guest on HBO’s Real Time this Friday, Oct. 3.
Once a staple on late-night couches, C.K. disappeared from mainstream television after a New York Times report detailed accounts from five women who accused him of sexual misconduct. He admitted to the allegations, taking a nine-month break from stand-up before resuming performances in 2018.
In recent years, he has rebuilt a sizable live audience and made multiple podcast appearances, including two visits with Joe Rogan in 2022 and 2023. Until now, his last late-night booking was on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in 2017.
The timing of his Real Time appearance coincides with fresh controversy surrounding his decision to perform at the Riyadh Season comedy festival, where he is scheduled to co-headline with British comedian Jimmy Carr on Oct. 6. Other comics on the bill—including Dave Chappelle, Pete Davidson, and Kevin Hart—have also faced backlash for performing in a country widely criticized for human rights abuses.
Human Rights Watch has argued the festival is designed to “divert attention” from Saudi Arabia’s repression of free speech. Comedians who have declined invitations to perform in Riyadh have accused their peers of hypocrisy for championing free expression in the West while performing at the behest of an authoritarian regime.
Maher has been one of C.K.’s most vocal defenders. On his Club Random podcast last year, he argued the comedian deserved another chance in mainstream entertainment. “Isn’t it time everyone just went: ‘OK, it wasn’t a cool thing to do, but it’s been long enough and welcome back. Enough! For Christ’s sake, it’s not the end of the world,’” he said at the time.
The Real Time host has been critical of the fallout from the #MeToo movement, noting, “People have done so much worse things and gotten less. There’s no rhyme or reason to the #MeToo-type punishments.”
Maher recently extended the same argument to Woody Allen, whom he welcomed to Club Random amid Allen’s continued ostracization in Hollywood over allegations that he sexually abused his daughter.
C.K. guested on Real Time with Bill Maher once before, in 2011. The show airs Friday nights at 10pm ET on HBO and HBO Max. It reairs on CNN Saturdays at 8pm ET.
Only a crybaby sexist misogynist, like Bill Maher, would think sexual predators, like Louis CK deserves a second chance, because Bill Maher is a sickening piece of shit himself! How many women has THAT fucking turd sexually assaulted over the years?
If he didn’t luck out in life, he’d be the world’s oldest incel!
Bill Maher deserves to be given a crippling beatdown on his live TV show,