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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Season 3
Oliver stands in front of a teal background with the tagline "back despite popular demand" to his left. Various negative quotes are contained in black boxes and float in front of Oliver.
Promotional poster for the season
No. of episodes30
Release
Original networkHBO
Original releaseFebruary 14 (2016-02-14) –
November 13, 2016 (2016-11-13)
Season chronology
← Previous
Season 2
Next →
Season 4
List of episodes

The third season of late-night talk and news satire television program Last Week Tonight with John Oliver originally aired between February 14, 2016, and November 13, 2016, on HBO in the United States. The season was produced by Avalon Television and Sixteen String Jack Productions; the executive producers were host John Oliver, Tim Carvell, and Liz Stanton, with Paul Pennolino as director.

Last Week Tonight aired on Sundays at 11 pm, and had a total of 30 episodes in season three. The season was generally well-received, receiving four Emmy Awards, a Television Academy Honor, a Peabody Award, and one WGA Award. The show continued to release the main stories of each broadcast on its YouTube channel after each episode aired. Episodes in the season were credited with influencing US law and culture, a phenomenon dubbed the "John Oliver effect". Prominent instances include the main segment of episode three, titled "Donald Trump", which set an HBO viewership record and received widespread media attention; and the main segment of episode fourteen, about debt buyers, in which Oliver forgave almost $15 million in medical debt for 9,000 Americans.

Production

Season three aired from February 14, 2016, to November 13, 2016.[1][2] The season was produced by Avalon Television and Sixteen String Jack Productions;[3] it aired on HBO in the United States at 11 pm on Sundays.[4] Tim Carvell, John Oliver, and Liz Stanton were the executive producers on the season. Writers included Oliver, Carvell, Kevin Avery, Josh Gondelman, Dan Gurewitch, Geoff Haggerty, Jeff Maurer, Scott Sherman, Ben Silva, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, and Juli Weiner. Paul Pennolino directed the season.[3][5] The team also included researchers with journalistic backgrounds at The New York Times Magazine, ProPublica, CNN, and MSNBC.[6]

Promotional material for the season displayed various negative blurbs criticizing Oliver or Last Week Tonight, like a quote from The Wall Street Journal that the show "makes people dumb".[1][7] Continuing an idea from season two, Oliver said that the Last Week Tonight production team wanted to create longer segments that went more in-depth into topics. This differed from season one's idea of having many short segments to cover the week's news.[8]

Last Week Tonight intentionally did not cover the 2016 United States presidential election in season two; Oliver called it a "massively overblown occasion" and explained that the team decided to concentrate on "other things that seemed a bit more relevant last year".[6] At a press event for season three, Oliver explained that they may discuss the electoral processes and the candidates, but that the "daily dramas of the campaigns" would not be covered; he explained that "there’s plenty of other people who will do that".[9] On the topic of then-Republican candidate Donald Trump, Oliver said that Last Week Tonight would not cover his campaigning, but expressed interest in discussing "what is happening underneath";[6] however, many episodes of season three contained segments about the election and Trump's campaign.[10][11]

Reception

Critical reception

The third season was generally well-received. Critics continued to praise the show's comedic but still in-depth segments on current events.[12][13] Variety commended Oliver's persona as host, describing him as having a "beautifully calibrated, extremely articulate rage".[12] Some critics said that Oliver's quick humorous interjections had "lost its charm", according to The Daily Free Press,[14] but others found that these quips were what made the show compelling.[15] The season's third episode, "Donald Trump", received widespread media attention;[16][17][18][19] many writers criticized the segment's satirizing of "Donald Drumpf", a spin on Trump's name using that of his ancestors, for being xenophobic.[16][18]

Ratings

Last Week Tonight received an average 5.6 million viewers in season three, which HBO said was boosted by its digital streaming services.[20] The show continued to release the main stories of episodes on the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel.[21] "Donald Trump" set an HBO viewership record, according to a spokesperson from the network; a month after airing, it had 23.3 million views on YouTube, 62 million views on Facebook, and an average gross television audience of about 6 million, totaling about 86 million views.[22][23]

Awards

See also: List of awards and nominations received by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Last Week Tonight received eight Emmy Award nominations for season three, winning Outstanding Variety Talk Series, Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series, Outstanding Interactive Program, and Outstanding Picture Editing For Variety Programming for the segment "F*ck 2016" in episode thirty.[3] After season three aired, Last Week Tonight received a Television Academy Honor for "[offering] an intellectually unique perspective mixed with the perfect balance of thoughtful jest";[24] the show also received a second Peabody Award for "crafting a form that pushes both comedy and journalism in new, fresh, and publicly important directions".[5] Additionally, Last Week Tonight received the Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Comedy-Variety Talk Series.[25]

Influence

See also: Donald Trump (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver) and John Oliver § Legacy

Coverage of an issue by Last Week Tonight has been credited with influencing US legislature and culture, a phenomenon dubbed the "John Oliver effect".[26] Episode three of the season covered Donald Trump's career and 2016 presidential campaign.[17] Immediately after airing, web searches for "Donald Drumpf" went viral. By March 1, the date on which the "Super Tuesday" primaries were held, Google Searches for "Donald Drumpf" had surpassed those for two of Trump's opponents.[27] Other media also started reporting on Trump's "short fingers" shortly after the episode's broadcast,[28][29] prompting Trump to write a Twitter post on March 1 inch (2.5 cm) which he stated that he was not aware of any mockery of his "short fingers".[30] After Oliver promoted a Chrome extension that automatically replaced the word "Trump" with "Drumpf", multiple spinoff extensions were created; as a result of a spinoff extension, Wired magazine accidentally published multiple articles replacing Trump's name with the phrase "Someone with Tiny Hands".[31] In addition, episode fourteen covered debt buying in the United States, a practice that Oliver criticized for allowing companies to manipulate people with extreme medical debt.[32] At the end of the episode, the host personally bought almost $15 million in medical debt and forgave it for 9,000 Americans.[33][34] The following year, a Reddit user claimed to have received a letter explaining that their debt had been paid off due to Oliver's philanthropy.[35]

Episodes

See also: List of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver episodes
List of episodes in season three
No.
overall		No. in
season		Main segmentOriginal air dateU.S. viewers
(millions)
601
Voter ID laws in the United States
February 14, 2016 (2016-02-14)1.02[36]
612
Abortion in the United States
February 21, 2016 (2016-02-21)0.92[37]
623
Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016
February 28, 2016 (2016-02-28)0.70[38]
634
Special districts
March 6, 2016 (2016-03-06)0.82[39]
645
FBI–Apple encryption dispute
March 13, 2016 (2016-03-13)0.96[40]
656
Trump wall
March 20, 2016 (2016-03-20)0.93[41]
667
Campaign finance in the United States
April 3, 2016 (2016-04-03)0.95[42]
678
Credit score in the United States
April 10, 2016 (2016-04-10)0.91[43]
689
Lead poisoning
April 17, 2016 (2016-04-17)0.85[44]
6910
Puerto Rican government-debt crisis
April 24, 2016 (2016-04-24)1.34[45]
7011
Scientific studies and science journalism
May 8, 2016 (2016-05-08)1.42[46]
7112
9-1-1
May 15, 2016 (2016-05-15)1.38[47]
7213
United States presidential primaries and caucuses
May 22, 2016 (2016-05-22)1.27[48]
7314
Debt buying industry
June 5, 2016 (2016-06-05)1.61[49]
7415
Retirement plans in the United States
June 12, 2016 (2016-06-12)1.21[50]
7516
Brexit referendum
June 19, 2016 (2016-06-19)1.44[51]
7617
Doping in sports
June 26, 2016 (2016-06-26)1.53[52]
7718
2016 Republican National Convention
July 24, 2016 (2016-07-24)1.09[53]
7819
2016 Democratic National Convention
July 31, 2016 (2016-07-31)1.27[54]
7920
News media in the United States
August 7, 2016 (2016-08-07)1.01[55]
8021
Subprime lending
August 14, 2016 (2016-08-14)0.97[56]
8122
Charter schools in the United States
August 21, 2016 (2016-08-21)1.15[57]
8223
Hillary Clinton's controversies and Donald Trump's controversies
September 25, 2016 (2016-09-25)0.88[58]
8324
Police in the United States
October 2, 2016 (2016-10-02)1.10[59]
8425
Guantanamo Bay detention camp
October 9, 2016 (2016-10-09)1.08[60]
8526
Jill Stein 2016 presidential campaign and Gary Johnson 2016 presidential campaign
October 16, 2016 (2016-10-16)1.34[61]
8627
Opioid epidemic in the United States
October 23, 2016 (2016-10-23)1.18[62]
8728
School segregation in the United States
October 30, 2016 (2016-10-30)1.03[63]
8829
Multi-level marketing
November 6, 2016 (2016-11-06)1.05[64]
8930
2016 United States presidential election results
November 13, 2016 (2016-11-13)1.17[65]

References

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