John Oliver addressed Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Sunday night’s episode of “Last Night Tonight.”
“We might have a new business dad!” Oliver joked at the start of Sunday night’s show. “Last Week Tonight” airs on HBO within Warner Bros. Discovery. Under the announced terms, Paramount plans to purchase all outstanding WBD stock for $31 in cash per share, with the companies saying they expect the transaction to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and WBD shareholder approval.
“Well, it’s not very good news,” he continued. “Actually, to borrow the words of someone who has ever accidentally sat down on a Roku remote, I’m at Paramount right now… How do I get out of this?”
Netflix formally rejected its increased offer to Warner Bros. on Thursday afternoon, after WBD declared Paramount Skydance’s latest bid to be a “better offer” than the deal it already has with Netflix.
This isn’t the first time Oliver has set his sights on Paramount. During early chats about a possible partnership between Paramount and WBD last September, the comedian said, “Stay away from us. You’re not my real business dad and never will be!” The concern underlying Mr. Oliver’s joke is that if Paramount buys Warner Bros. Discovery, it could move HBO closer to a broadcast-style corporate structure, including the possibility of making it more susceptible to FCC oversight and regulatory pressure, which Mr. Oliver has contrasted with the relative freedom of premium cable.
In the same episode, while explaining the hypothesis that it would be within the rules for someone to give Donald Trump a $15 million check earmarked for the Presidential Library Foundation, Oliver veered into the punchline of what kind of “soulless” corporation would do something like that, flashing the Paramount logo on the screen to emphasize the goal.
