
Viewers tuning in tonight to see John Oliver’s reaction to President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race are in for something of a disappointment.
Tonight’s episode—the first new episode of Last Week Tonight since June 23rd—was taped Saturday, before Biden’s Sunday afternoon announcement.
But according to Last Week Tonight EP Tim Carvell, tonight’s episode wouldn’t have been much different had they known the news when they taped it at 5 pm ET on Saturday.
“Honestly, we tried to cover our bases and if we taped today it’d only be around 2% different,” wrote Carvell in response to a post on Bluesky.
Separately, Last Week Tonight posted this message on X/Twitter: “‘Hey, let’s switch our taping day to Saturday, no big news ever happens on a Sunday afternoon.’ — some idiots.”
The show certainly had plenty of material to cover even before today’s announcement, having aired its last new episode before Biden’s poor debate performance, before the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling, before the attempt on President Trump’s life, before Judge Aileen Cannon threw out Trump’s classified documents case, before Trump selected Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate, and before last week’s Republican National Convention.
Although it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Oliver and team might add a cold open to the top of this week’s show addressing Biden stepping down and endorsing his Vice President Kamala Harris, as of this writing that doesn’t appear to be in the works.
Oliver isn’t the only victim of less than ideal timing in late night this week. His old colleagues at The Daily Show find themselves in a similar predicament, with the show taking a one-week break through next Monday, July 29. Late Night with Seth Meyers is also dark this week, and won’t return with new episodes until August 12—after the Summer Olympics.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!—with guest hosts Lamorne Morris (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday) and Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman (on Wednesday)—are all scheduled to tape new episodes this week.
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