John Oliver Asks ‘How the F— Do I Get Out of Here?’ as Paramount Expands Media Takeover with Warner Bros. Buyout
Paramount won the bidding war to acquire the parent company of HBO and CNN on Feb. 26
John Oliver is weighing in after Paramount Skydance emerged victorious in its bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. During a recent segment, the late-night host didn’t hold back, reacting with visible surprise at the scale of the media shake-up. His comments quickly caught viewers’ attention.
During the Sunday, March 1 episode of his show Last Week Tonight, which airs on the Warner Bros.-owned HBO, the host, 48, joked about the news of the acquisition.
“It turns out we might be getting a new business daddy,” Oliver quipped. “Yeah, not great news. If I may quote anyone who’s ever accidentally sat on their Roku remote, ‘Oh s—, I’m in Paramount now. How the f— do I get out of this?’ “
On Thursday, Feb. 26, Netflix pulled out of the bidding war with Paramount, the parent company of HBO and CNN, which is set to buy out Warner Bros. this year. Oliver, who has been openly critical about the potential merger, further called out Paramount+ later in his episode while talking about police body cameras.
“There’s no point in the police just stacking up thousand of hours of footage that nobody’s ever going to see, especially given that we all know, that’s Paramount+’s job,” he said. “What are they going to do? Take us over and immediately cancel us? I’m genuinely asking.”
Also on Feb. 26, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos was seen visiting the White House. Netflix declined to increase their bid later that day.
Earlier that week, President Donald Trump called for Netflix to cut ties with President Barack Obama’s former national security adviser Susan Rice, who currently sits on the company’s executive board.
In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Feb. 21, the president shared a message from far-right activist Laura Loomer that described Michelle Obama as an “anti-White racist.” He captioned the repost: “Netflix should fire racist, Trump Deranged Susan Rice, IMMEDIATELY, or pay the consequences.”
His comments were in response to Loomer’s initial post, which blasted Netflix’s attempt to acquire Warner Bros. and urged Trump to block the merger. Loomer also expressed fears that the Obamas’ production company, Higher Ground Productions — which produces a variety of content on Netflix — would influence both companies.
“Making this more horrifying is the fact that if the Netflix-Warner Bros. merger is approved, positive messaging of the Democrats’ upcoming witch hunts against Trump from Barack Hussein Obama…and his anti-White racist wife Michelle… would likely be blasted across all streaming services as the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions continues to grow within Netflix,” Loomer, 32, wrote.
The posts by Trump and Loomer followed Rice’s appearance on a podcast hosted by former U.S. attorney for the southern distract of New York Preet Bharara, during which she shared a warning to private corporations who have bowed to pressure from the Trump administration.
“If these corporations think that the Democrats, when they come back in power, are going to, you know, play by the old rules, and, you know, say, ‘Oh, never mind. We’ll forgive you for all the people you fired, all the policies and principles you’ve violated, all, you know, the laws you’ve skirted.’ I think they’ve got another thing coming,” Rice said on Feb. 19.
“You know, companies already are starting to hear they better preserve their documents. They better be ready for subpoenas. If they’ve done something wrong, they’ll be held accountable, and if they haven’t broken the law, good for them,” she continued.
