John Oliver offers Clarence Thomas $1 million a year to resign

[Steve Timko]

John Oliver returned from hiatus with a bang. He offered Clarence Thomas $1 million a year and a $2.5 million motor coach if he resigned from the Supreme Court within a month.

Normally, I could post a YouTube link to that part of the show. But HBO hasn't posted the show yet. Here's a link to a poor pirated copy. The offer is around the 31 minute mark.

https://youtu.be/YceyOgpj_RE?si=c1d7MPnHBv990oui

I wonder if this indicates turmoil at HBO over the show.

Oliver said he is paying Thomas' salary personally, not HBO. I am guessing left leaning millionaires will chip in if it means Thomas is off the court.

[Kevin M.]

HBO is now delaying posting the show on YouTube until Thursdays, hoping to boost traffic to Max. Oliver hopes they will reconsider. 

https://deadline.com/2024/02/last-week-tonight-john-oliver-main-story-release-delayed-youtube-hbo-1235831235/amp/

Kevin M. (RPCV)

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[PGage]

As Kevin points out, the YouTube delay is far from an indication of turmoil with Oliver at HBO, but an attempt by HBO/Max to further monetize him.

I am not worried about Oliver financially, first because there is zero chance Thomas takes the offer (not because Thomas is above taking it of course, but because he undoubtedly has a much better retirement deal with his current sponsors), second because even if he had to pay up, it is about 12% of Oliver’s current HBO salary, and Thomas’ life expectancy is probably shorter than that of Oliver’s show. I will have to ask my wife, who is a bookkeeper for a CPA, if this kind of thing would be a tax deductible business expense for Oliver as an independent contractor, assuming he made it a key part of his next stand up act in the event he had to pay out.

Oliver was very explicit that the $1M/year would come from his personal accounts, but did not make the same disclaimer about the $2.5M Luxury motor coach. I wonder if HBO agreed to pay for part or all of that in the event ( or if the maker agreed to donate it)?

All in all: Hilarious and effective.

Also, Oliver’s return was a clear, though no doubt unintentional, illustration of why he is so much better at political humor than Jon Stewart. While Oliver was also critical of Biden, his critique was not just hack “Biden so Old”, but aimed at his pale and weak attempts to reign in Netanyahu. That is a real and substantive critique (and complex enough that I myself do not unambiguously agree with it, though I respect it).

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[Marti Lawrence]

I thought it was an excellent segment. I know Clarence Thomas won't take him up on it, but it was still very entertaining to watch. 

~Marti

[Mark Jeffries]

Well, officially wouldn't they have to run a "promotional consideration furnished by" credit to the manufacturer or supplier of the coach?

Mark Jeffries
Saints Spotlight Editor
spotl...@gmail.com

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[Adam Bowie]

Special Thanks: GOSS RV

I assume that it was returned post show, and in some crazy world where the offer was taken up, the show would buy the RV or perhaps have taken out some kind of insurance policy to cover it. (Some gameshows with big but rare payouts, like Millionaire, do use insurance policies in some instances).

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[PGage]

From Julia Alexander at Puck News and Parrot Analytics:

“Discovery and HBO have strategically delayed uploading new segments from Last Week Tonight to YouTube to drive more subscribers to Max. It may work—but I have a feeling it won’t. And based on host John Oliver’s recent tweet expressing consternation with the decision, he isn’t so sure, either. 

Here’s the main issue: Customers who wanted both Oliver’s show and the Max catalog in one package have likely already signed up for Max. But those watching Last Week Tonight segments religiously on YouTube (where the audience is younger) aren’t necessarily interested in paying for a service. Is Oliver worth an additional $15 a month, or is it easier to just wait three more days? My assumption is that most of the YouTube audience won’t upgrade for one talent they can literally “wait and see.” They’d probably rather watch only his most viral content in algorithmically recommended clip form, anyway.”

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[Adam Bowie]

I found it amusing this morning to read in close succession about how well Jon Stewart's segments are doing on YouTube following his return to TDS immediately followed by reporting that John Oliver's segments are being delayed. From CNN's Reliable Sources newsletter:

The delay will make zero difference in subscribers choosing to get Max rather than wait a couple of days, by which time, the views will be lower than they might have been. Also, there'll be dodgy copies on YouTube filling up the slack. There are various "creative" ways to get around YouTube's copyright systems.

Adam

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[PGage]

I think partly this is a generational thing. The old guys who run WBD likely don’t understand what it means for young people to watch YouTube. I confess I don’t really understand it. I often ask my son if he wants to watch a film or show with me, and he will say no, he is watching YouTube.

I’m like, “but, your mom and I subscribe to pretty much every service out there, why only watch short clips of stuff? Tell me what you are watching on YT and we can watch the whole thing on TV.”

He’s like “you don’t get it. I only want to watch short clips. And most of the clips I watch are not from shows on television, they are of stuff the people just post.”

The people at Max, like me, assume young folks are desperately watching short clips of Jon Oliver for free on YT, wishing they could afford to oat for Max to watch the whole show. But the vast majority of those folks either have access to and don’t watch, or don’t want, HBO. They actually prefer short clips, and a process that identifies the clips other people will be watching and talking about specifically so they don’t have to watch the whole show. Actually paying $15 a month (or whatever it is) to watch the boring parts nobody is talking about seems both stupid and painful.

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