John Oliver Not Thrilled About Paramount’s Successful Warner Bros. Bid

John Oliver addressed the harsh reality that he might be getting a new “business daddy” soon with a bit about Paramount Skydance’s now-likely acquisition of HBO parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.

On Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight, Oliver briefly addressed the news that Netflix — long in pole position to acquire Warner Bros. — had decided not to match Paramount’s latest bid for the studio. While the deal is far from done, the sale isn’t expected to face much regulatory resistance in the U.S., as the Trump administration has not been subtle about its preference for Paramount over Netflix.

“It turns out we might be getting a new business daddy,” Oliver quipped during his weekly news round-up, before calling the development “not great news.” He then cracked, “In fact, if I may quote anyone who’s ever accidentally sat on their Roku remove, ‘Oh shit, I’m in Paramount now, how the fuck do I get out of this?’” 

Oliver made another joke about his likely future parent company during his primary segment on police body cameras. Noting how the copious amount of footage recorded by cops, and meant to help hold them to account, often goes unwatched, Oliver joked, “There’s no point in the police just stacking up thousands of hours of footage that nobody’s ever going to see. Especially, given that we all know, that is Paramount+’s job. Hey, what are they gonna do? Take us over and immediately cancel us? I’m genuinely asking!”

It’s not an unfair question for someone like Oliver to ask. Last year, David Ellison — son of tech billionaire and republican backer Larry Ellison — successfully bought Paramount, and has since implemented several Trump-friendly changes like ending diversity and inclusion initiatives and installing the center-right opinion writer Bari Weiss as head of CBS News. (Oliver dedicated an entire segment to Weiss and the Paramount Skydance merger last fall.)

Also, prior to the sale going through, Paramount (under its former owners) decided to cancel The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The decision was chalked up to finances, but many saw it as a further attempt to curry favor with the Trump admin considering Colbert’s frequent criticism of Trump.