John Oliver on Paramount Buying Warner Bros. Monologue

John Oliver addressed Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery during Sunday night time’s episode of “Last Night Tonight.”

“We might be getting a new business daddy!,” Oliver quipped at the starting of Sunday night time’s present. “Last Week Tonight” airs on HBO, which sits within Warner Bros. Discovery. Under the announced phrases, Paramount plans to purchase all excellent WBD shares at $31 per share in money, with the firms saying the deal is predicted to shut in Q3 2026, topic to regulatory clearances and WBD shareholder approval.

“Yeah, not great news,” he went on to say. “In fact, if I may quote anyone who’s ever accidentally sat on their Roku remote, I’m in Paramount now…how the f-ck do I get out of here?’”

Netflix on Thursday afternoon formally declined to extend its provide for Warner Bros. after WBD declared Paramount Skydance’s latest bid a “superior proposal” to the settlement it already had in hand with Netflix.

This isn’t the first time Oliver has taken purpose at Paramount. Amid early chatter about a attainable Paramount–WBD tie-up last September, the comic said “Please stay the f-ck away from us. You are not my real business daddy, and you never will be!” Oliver’s concern underlying the joke was that if Paramount acquired Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO could possibly be pulled nearer to a broadcast-style company construction — including potential sensitivity to FCC oversight and regulatory strain — one thing he has beforehand contrasted with the relative freedom of premium cable.

In that same episode, while strolling by a hypothetical through which somebody might hand Donald Trump a $15 million test earmarked for a presidential library basis and still keep within the guidelines, Oliver pivoted to a punchline about what sort of “soulless” company would ever do one thing like that — and flashed Paramount’s emblem on-screen to underline the goal.