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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver season 3

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Season 3
Oliver stands in front of a teal background with the tagline "back despite popular demand" to his left. Various negative quotes are contained in black boxes and float in front of Oliver.
Promotional poster for the season
No. of episodes30
Release
Original networkHBO
Original releaseFebruary 14 (2016-02-14) –
November 13, 2016 (2016-11-13)
Season chronology
← Previous
Season 2
Next →
Season 4
List of episodes

The third season of late-night talk and news satire television program Last Week Tonight with John Oliver originally aired between February 14, 2016, and November 13, 2016, on HBO in the United States. The season was produced by Avalon Television and Sixteen String Jack Productions; the executive producers were host John Oliver, Tim Carvell, and Liz Stanton, with Paul Pennolino as director.

Last Week Tonight aired on Sundays at 11 pm, and had a total of 30 episodes in season three. The season was generally well-received, winning four Emmy Awards, a Television Academy Honor, and one WGA Award. The show continued to release the main stories of each broadcast on its YouTube channel after each episode aired. Episodes in the season were credited with influencing US law and culture, a phenomenon dubbed the "John Oliver effect". Prominent instances include the main segment of episode three, titled "Donald Trump", which set an HBO viewership record and received widespread media attention; and the main segment of episode fourteen, about debt buyers, in which Oliver forgave almost $15 million in medical debt for 9,000 Americans.

Production

Season three aired from February 14, 2016, to November 13, 2016.[1][2] The season was produced by Avalon Television and Sixteen String Jack Productions;[3] it aired on HBO in the United States at 11 pm on Sundays.[4] Tim Carvell, John Oliver, and Liz Stanton were the executive producers on the season. Writers included Oliver, Carvell, Kevin Avery, Josh Gondelman, Dan Gurewitch, Geoff Haggerty, Jeff Maurer, Scott Sherman, Ben Silva, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, and Juli Weiner. Paul Pennolino directed the season.[3][5] The team also included researchers with journalistic backgrounds at The New York Times Magazine, ProPublica, CNN, and MSNBC.[6]

Promotional material for the season displayed various negative blurbs criticizing Oliver or Last Week Tonight, like a quote from The Wall Street Journal that the show "makes people dumb".[1][7] Continuing an idea from season two, Oliver said that the Last Week Tonight production team wanted to create longer segments that went more in-depth into topics. This differed from season one's idea of having many short segments to cover the week's news.[8]

Last Week Tonight intentionally did not cover the 2016 United States presidential election in season two; Oliver called it a "massively overblown occasion" and explained that the team decided to concentrate on "other things that seemed a bit more relevant last year".[6] At a press event for season three, Oliver explained that they may discuss the electoral processes and the candidates, but that the "daily dramas of the campaigns" would not be covered; he explained that "there’s plenty of other people who will do that".[9] On the topic of then-Republican candidate Donald Trump, Oliver said that Last Week Tonight would not cover his campaigning, but expressed interest in discussing "what is happening underneath";[6] however, many episodes of season three contained segments about the election and Trump's campaign.[10][11]

Reception

Critical reception

The third season was generally well received. Critics continued to praise the show's comedic but still in-depth segments on current events.[12][13] Variety commended Oliver's persona as host, describing him as having a "beautifully calibrated, extremely articulate rage".[12] Some critics said that Oliver's quick humorous interjections had "lost its charm", according to The Daily Free Press,[14] but others found that these quips were what made the show compelling.[15] The season's third episode, "Donald Trump", received widespread media attention;[16][17][18][19] many writers criticized the segment's satirizing of "Donald Drumpf", a spin on Trump's name using that of his ancestors, for being xenophobic.[16][18]

Ratings

Last Week Tonight received an average 5.6 million viewers in season three, which HBO said was boosted by its digital streaming services.[20] The show continued to release the main stories of episodes on the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel.[21] "Donald Trump" set an HBO viewership record, according to a spokesperson from the network; a month after airing, it had 23.3 million views on YouTube, 62 million views on Facebook, and an average gross television audience of about 6 million, totaling about 86 million views.[22][23] In April 2024, HBO announced that the full episodes of seasons one through eight would be released on the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel.[24]

Awards

Last Week Tonight received eight Emmy Award nominations for season three, winning Outstanding Variety Talk Series, Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series, Outstanding Interactive Program, and Outstanding Picture Editing For Variety Programming for the segment "F*ck 2016" in episode thirty.[3] After season three aired, Last Week Tonight received a Television Academy Honor for "[offering] an intellectually unique perspective mixed with the perfect balance of thoughtful jest".[25] Additionally, Last Week Tonight received the Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Comedy-Variety Talk Series.[26]

Influence

Coverage of an issue by Last Week Tonight has been credited with influencing US legislature and culture, a phenomenon dubbed the "John Oliver effect".[27] Episode three of the season covered Donald Trump's career and 2016 presidential campaign.[17] Immediately after airing, web searches for "Donald Drumpf" went viral. By March 1, the date on which the "Super Tuesday" primaries were held, Google Searches for "Donald Drumpf" had surpassed those for two of Trump's opponents.[28] Other media also started reporting on Trump's "short fingers" shortly after the episode's broadcast,[29][30] prompting Trump to write a Twitter post on March 1 which he stated that he was not aware of any mockery of his "short fingers".[31] After Oliver promoted a Chrome extension that automatically replaced the word "Trump" with "Drumpf", multiple spinoff extensions were created; as a result of a spinoff extension, Wired magazine accidentally published multiple articles replacing Trump's name with the phrase "Someone with Tiny Hands".[32] In addition, episode fourteen covered debt buying in the United States, a practice that Oliver criticized for allowing companies to manipulate people with extreme medical debt.[33] At the end of the episode, the host personally bought almost $15 million in medical debt and forgave it for 9,000 Americans.[34][35] The following year, a Reddit user claimed to have received a letter explaining that their debt had been paid off due to Oliver's philanthropy.[36]

Episodes

List of episodes in season three
No.
overall
No. in
season
Main segmentOriginal air dateU.S. viewers
(millions)
601February 14, 2016 (2016-02-14)1.02[37]
Other segments: Death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the Thurmond Rule, food safety issues at Chipotle restaurants, New Zealand politician Steven Joyce getting hit in the face with a dildo
Guests:
Actor Andy Daly, director Peter Jackson
612February 21, 2016 (2016-02-21)0.92[38]
623February 28, 2016 (2016-02-28)0.70[39]
634March 6, 2016 (2016-03-06)0.82[40]
645March 13, 2016 (2016-03-13)0.96[41]
656March 20, 2016 (2016-03-20)0.93[42]
667April 3, 2016 (2016-04-03)0.95[43]
Other segments: 2016 Nuclear Security Summit, Yankee Stadium seat pricing, CNBC anchor Joe Kernen's personal trainer
Guest: US congressman Steve Israel
678April 10, 2016 (2016-04-10)0.91[44]
Other segments: Panama Papers, Alabama Governor Robert J. Bentley's affair, Yankee Stadium seat pricing
Guest: Cellist Yo-Yo Ma
689April 17, 2016 (2016-04-17)0.85[45]
Other segments: Direct Line with Vladimir Putin, UK Prime Minister David Cameron's involvement in the Panama Papers, Böhmermann affair
Guests: Sesame Street characters
6910April 24, 2016 (2016-04-24)1.34[46]
7011May 8, 2016 (2016-05-08)1.42[47]
7112May 15, 2016 (2016-05-15)1.38[48]
Other segments: Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign, Elizabeth II filmed calling Chinese officials "very rude", Budweiser beer renaming to America Beer, Maine Governor Paul LePage
Guests: Actors Wendi McLendon-Covey, Rob Riggle
7213May 22, 2016 (2016-05-22)1.27[49]
7314June 5, 2016 (2016-06-05)1.61[50]
Other segments: Trump University, Wolf Blitzer
7415June 12, 2016 (2016-06-12)1.21[51]
7516June 19, 2016 (2016-06-19)1.44[52]
7617June 26, 2016 (2016-06-26)1.53[53]
7718July 24, 2016 (2016-07-24)1.09[54]
7819July 31, 2016 (2016-07-31)1.27[55]
7920August 7, 2016 (2016-08-07)1.01[56]
8021August 14, 2016 (2016-08-14)0.97[57]
8122August 21, 2016 (2016-08-21)1.15[58]
Other segments: Lochtegate, Donald Trump
Guest: Actor Will Arnett
8223September 25, 2016 (2016-09-25)0.88[59]
8324October 2, 2016 (2016-10-02)1.10[60]
8425October 9, 2016 (2016-10-09)1.08[61]
8526October 16, 2016 (2016-10-16)1.34[62]
Other segment: Donald Trump
8627October 23, 2016 (2016-10-23)1.18[63]
8728October 30, 2016 (2016-10-30)1.03[64]
8829November 6, 2016 (2016-11-06)1.05[65]
Other segment: 2016 United States elections
Guest: TV personality Jaime Camil
8930November 13, 2016 (2016-11-13)1.17[66]

References

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