Will Ferrell Breaks HBO’s Last Week Tonight YouTube Strategy

“We’re going to do something a bit different tonight.” That’s how John Oliver started this past Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight, which went on to feature not one but two main stories—both related to immigration.

The first story was a comprehensive takedown of Donald Trump‘s proposed mass deportation policy, a centerpiece of his 2024 presidential campaign. The second was a somewhat more lighthearted (but no less indicting) piece about Lee Greenwood and his song “God Bless the U.S.A.,” which has become something of an unofficial anthem for the Trump campaign.

As Oliver noted, Greenwood’s song had been a mandated part of U.S. naturalization ceremonies until Greenwood began demanding that the government pay him for it.

It was that second piece that prompted Oliver and team to bring in Will Ferrell to film a music video for their own anthem that they’ve offered to pay the government to play at U.S. naturalization ceremonies.

Taken together, the two stories very much fit the show’s “spoonful of sugar” approach to serious topics—the Lee Greenwood piece, in this case, being the sugar. But the very existence of two main stories seemed to have an unintended consequence.

Since its premiere in 2014, Last Week Tonight has made it a custom to post its main story to YouTube, where it usually ends up being seen by far more people than subscribe to watch it on HBO or Max. That’s especially key for a piece that unravels a presidential candidate’s core campaign promise 11 days before an election. But with two main stories to choose from—and orders from on-high to hold back something for paid subscribers, a decision had to be made: Which main story would YouTube get?

The answer? The one with Will Ferrell.

Because of course it was—the Ferrell video was clearly the highlight of this week’s show. But in choosing to hold back the more substantive voter-forward story, the message being sent is something akin to “Save Democracy: Subscribe to Max.”

There’s been no word yet on this topic from John Oliver himself, although in the past he’s been critical of his parent company’s efforts to hold back Last Week Tonight content from YouTube. Ironically, this week’s entire episode is available for viewing on YouTube for viewers in territories outside the U.S. where Max and other distribution partners don’t hold the rights.

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