John Oliver rips HBO Max parent for canceling shows: ‘Series of tax write-offs’

The Law & Order television franchise is “commercial” for a “defective product,” said John Oliver on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, capping a lengthy rant about the Dick Wolf cop shows that Oliver argued present an unrealistic and misleading depiction of law enforcement.

“Last Week Tonight.”Oliver noted how Wolf, 75, has a “close, behind-the-scenes relationship with the NYPD, employing officers as consultants and boasting about the access he had.”He then revealed a past interview with an anonymous “Law & Order” writer, who claimed if the series depicted police in a more realistic, critical way, then the NYPD would make it very “difficult” to continue filming in the Big Apple.The chat show host went on to describe that because Wolf’s franchise works closely with the cops, there is much accuracy in how the law is portrayed. Details such as “specific laws, jargon and crime scene procedures” are illustrated properly, Oliver said.“But crucially it also makes a lot of choices that significantly distort the big picture of police,” he said, adding that the right offender is usually arrested midway through the episode — and justice is done by the end.

Ever the workhorse, Steven Soderbergh has made the most of the three-year overall deal he signed with HBO Max in January 2020. The director has already supplied HBO subscribers with three films, “Let Them All Talk,” “No Sudden Move,” and “Kimi,” with “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” on the way soon.

Steven Soderbergh is returning to the world of TV, and for his next project, “Full Circle,” the filmmaker is bringing along an actor he has previously worked with.  According to Deadline, Zazie Beetz has been cast in the upcoming six-episode limited series, “Full Circle,” from filmmaker Steven Soderbergh. In the series, Beetz is expected to play an agent for the United States Postal Inspection Service.

John Oliver can’t stop winning Emmys.

HBO Max is offering a limited-time discount for new and returning subscribers. The streaming service is giving customers 30% off a one-year subscription when signing up and prepaying the full year. If you've been waiting for an opportunity to catch up on HBO Max's Emmy-winning show  and the new prequel series , then this might be it. With the HBO Max deal, you can sign up for a year of the ad-free plan for  $104.99 (regularly $149.99) or get HBO Max with ads for $69.99 (regularly $99.99). Compared with the streamer's regular month-to-month pricing, the discount represents a 42% savings. HBO Max’s latest offer is good for a single year’s subscription and after the 12-month discount period, subscriptions will auto-renew at the regular subscription price. Don't miss out on this limited-time deal to sign up for a discounted HBO Max yearly subscription before the promotion ends on October 30, 2022. When you sign up for 12 months of HBO Max, you save over 40% compared to a month-by-month plan.

Things got slightly weird during the latest installment of “Last Week Tonight” as John Oliver exchanged vows with a very large cabbage.

Kate Aurthur editor The Aug. 6 address before the assembly at Remnant Fellowship — delivered to an in-person gathering in Brentwood, TN, and via webcast to anyone who might want to watch — began typically enough, with congregants watching an old video sermon from Gwen Shamblin Lara, the church’s late founder who died in a plane crash on May 29, 2021. What happened after the video portion ended, though, was unusual. In a portion of the sermon, obtained by Variety, Elizabeth Hannah, Lara’s daughter and a leader at Remnant, called in, as she sometimes does. But instead of her usual teachings for Saturday service, Hannah delivered a homily of schadenfreude aimed directly at HBO Max, the enemy of Remnant and the Shamblin family.

EXCLUSIVE: About 70 people, or 14% of the programming operation overseen by HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys, were laid off last week as part of cost-cutting across Warner Bros. Discovery. At the time, only the departures of the heads of departments that were worst hit — all of them on the HBO Max side — were made public, including Jennifer O’Connell EVP, Non-Fiction & Live-Action Family Originals. Now names of other executives who are leaving as part of the restructuring and staff reductions are starting to trickle out.

HBO Max's , which chronicles the multigenerational clan's lavish Texas lifestyle, and the ups and downs in their hectic personal and professional lives. While the first season introduced viewers to patriarch Binh and matriarch Hue, who built a multimillion-dollar real estate and banking empire, and their grown children, Washington and Judy, as they try to live up to their parents' exceedingly high expectations, the new season — premiering Thursday — peels back the layers and aims to go deeper into the fabric of the Ho family.In season 2, Washington charts his journey to stay sober while re-evaluating his career, while Judy enjoys engaged life with fiance Nate Nguyễn as she undergoes IVF in an effort to become pregnant.

Another day, another list of programming that was originally set to arrive on HBO Max but has been prematurely canceled. It’s happening so often, that it’s hard to feign surprise, right? Well, this time the list of cuts includes an animated project that superhero fans had been dying to see— “Batman: Caped Crusader.” According to Variety, HBO Max is continuing to cut children’s and family programming as the streaming service seemingly moves into a new phase of its existence before it combines with Discovery+ in 2023.

HBO Max launched a new limited-time deal for new and returning customers. The streaming service is offering 30% off a one-year subscription when signing up and prepaying the full year. If you've been waiting for an opportunity to catch up on HBO Max's Emmy-winning show  and the new prequel series , then this might be it. With the HBO Max deal, you can sign up for a year of the ad-free plan for  $104.99 (regularly $149.99) or get HBO Max with ads for $69.99 (regularly $99.99). Compared with the streamer's regular month-to-month pricing, the discount represents a 42% savings. HBO Max’s latest offer is good for a single year’s subscription and after the 12-month discount period, subscriptions will auto-renew at the regular subscription price. Don't miss out on this limited-time deal to sign up for a discounted HBO Max yearly subscription before the promotion ends on October 30, 2022. When you sign up for 12 months of HBO Max, you save over 40% compared to a month-by-month plan.

Sunday night at 9:00 pm Eastern Standard time the long-awaited Game Of Thrones prequel titled ‘House Of The Dragon’ premiered on HBO Max. Fans of Games of Thrones have been looking forward to new content for a very long time as the original show ended on May 19th, 2019.

John Oliver called Sarah Palin many things on Sunday night, from a “bulls—” peddler to a “grifter.” But during “Last Week Tonight,” he had a new one for the former Alaska governor now seeking a seat in U.S. House of Representatives: He compared her to a walrus penis.Oliver kicked off the show with a recap of midterm elections across the country, including in Alaska, where candidates are currently vying for the congressional seat vacated by Don Young, who died earlier this year.

“House of the Dragon” on Sunday evening — but some viewers were in for an infuriating night when the much-anticipated 10-episode series finally dropped after months of hype.So many fans were trying to stream the show simultaneously — that HBO Max actually crashed. This led to thousands of users not being able to watch the first episode.Many subscribers reportedly fell victim to the streamer’s app fizzling out, with the website outage service Down Detector reporting that there were at about 3,000 blackouts between 8:40 p.m. and 9:25 p,.m.

The upcoming 53rd season will be available on the streaming service, the outlet reported.HBO and “Sesame Street” joined forces in 2015, which gave the streaming service priority to air all new episodes first, before it can be seen on the show’s longtime home, PBS. This agreement is effective until The “Sesame Street” cut comes after HBO made an announcement on Wednesday saying that at least 36 additional shows will be leaving the platform this week. That includes 20 HBO original shows, as well as “Generation,” “Infinity Train,” and earlier this month, all eight of the “Harry Potter” films were axed.Warner Bros.

Sunday night at 9:00 pm Eastern Standard time the long-awaited Game Of Thrones prequel titled ‘House Of The Dragon’ premiered on HBO Max. Fans of Games of Thrones have been looking forward to new content for a very long time as the original show ended on May 19th, 2019.

HBO Max is axing about 200 episodes of "Sesame Street" from its streaming platform. Warner Bros. Discovery recently became the new owners of HBO Max, which could tie into the reasoning behind the content purge.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeAfter weeks of speculation, Warner Bros. Discovery is ready to reveal some of the changes that will take place at HBO Max, in advance of next year’s anticipated combination of the HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services. And as expected, HBO Max will downsize its reality programming department.

The dreaded post-merger Warner Bros. Discovery layoffs have reached the programming operation overseen by HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys.