John Oliver doesn’t seem to have a problem with HBO/Max
Colbert seems to struggle more with the FCC regulations on what he can’t say and show more than what CBS wants. It’s less often now but at the start of his Late Show he really appeared to be mean to CBS on-air specifically to prove that they didn’t have a presence in his writers room.
My guess is that it has more to do with viewership and Emmy wins. His show was frequently telling people that AT&T has terrible service. I can’t imagine AT&T would’ve let that fly if he wasn’t driving viewers and signups.
Oliver also has a lot of Emmy wins. He might also have a larger viewing audience.
My guess is that Oliver, like Viacom era Jon Stewart, is popular enough that he can shit on his employer.
He’s been shitting on his employer pretty much since the beginning. It just seems like he went for the fuck around and find out method and I am willing to bet that him and his staff are quite surprised he hasn’t found out after all these years.
Stuart has 22 Emmys from the Daily Show and Colbert Report combined. John Oliver has 17; 3 from the Daily Show and 14 from Last Week Tonight.
I agree with others who said this is Apple’s problem, not Stewart’s. He can get a platform/desk anywhere he wants one.
The past wins are kind of irrelevant. My point is that viewership and wins for his new show might not be strong enough for him to push back hard.
Not trying to victim blame the guy, just saying that he’s been in stronger positions with past shows. The Daily Show was raking in emmys and was the primary reason many people tuned into Comedy Central. It was probably really easy for him to pushback on network notes back then. He had the ability to seriously hurt viewership if he bailed CC.
“That’s right, Business Daddy! Bend over and get ready to take it”
Oliver shits on Business Daddy regularly.
And business daddy appreciates that it’s good business. As soon as you threaten business daddy’s business interest it’s game over. Luckily HBO’s motives are more aligned with journalism than Apple’s. Apple is literally the Orwellian nightmare they mocked in ads 40 years ago.