Late-Night's Last Hope

"Since debuting in 2014, Last Week Tonight has slowly refined its format so the heart of every episode is a long segment about a single topic, typically one that mainstream news outlets don't bother covering: carbon offsets, debt-purchasing companies, jury selection, payday loans, mandatory prison sentences. These segments then have afterlives as self-contained YouTube clips and summaries by news outlets all over the world. The Guardian even has a dedicated "John Oliver Recap" column."

"Oliver scrutinizes one dire situation after another, then says what the average person can do to address them. Sometimes, he concedes that the answer is "not much," but there's still satisfaction in having a problem laid out in terms everyone can understand. Corny? For sure. Yet Last Week Tonight has aligned itself with the pragmatic optimism of Frank Capra, whose great theme was that heroism is useless unless it moves society to collective action."

"Oliver's persona on The Daily Show, the Jon Stewart news series where he got his start as a correspondent,was an Englishman bewildered by the madness of the Yanks. At first, he brought an anchorman variant of that to HBO; over time, he became less a faux newsman than that one professor whose class changes your life. Last Week Tonight has always been more thorough in its account of the week's major issues than the nightly network shows,"

Last Week Tonight debuted in 2014 and has won 30 Emmys with 73 nominations. The show refined a format centered on a long segment about a single topic, often ones mainstream outlets ignore such as carbon offsets, debt-purchasing companies, jury selection, payday loans, and mandatory prison sentences. Segments become self-contained YouTube clips and worldwide news summaries. The host scrutinizes dire situations, outlines what average viewers can do, and sometimes concedes limited options while offering satisfaction through clear explanation. The persona shifted from an Englishman bewildered by America to a professor-like figure whose class changes viewers' perspectives. The show pairs humor with pragmatic optimism toward collective action.

Read at Vulture