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Is it HBO Max or just Max? John Oliver pokes fun at the recent name change to the Last Week Tonight network
Jetlagged and exhausted after his recent double Emmy win, John Oliver gave the best explanation he could about the HBO / HBO Max changes
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The world of television is an unpredictable place, especially for streaming sites. To succeed, you have to have a solid brand that is recognizable and consistent to keep customers from getting confused. Which is why everyone has been scratching their heads about the sudden shift from Max back to HBO Max. Even John Oliver, whose show Last Week Tonight recently won two fresh Emmys, seems slightly confused by the back and forth.
When asked to explain the difference between HBO and HBO Max while on Jimmy Kimmel Live, a very jetlagged John Oliver explained that the names were in a constant state of flux, making them nearly unknowable even to him. “It can’t be done,” John Oliver said of giving a satisfactory definition to the streamer’s name. “Either tired or having just woken up from a 14-hour sleep. It can’t be done, because it’s so ephemeral. You can think you know what it is, and it will have shifted to the thing you thought it wasn’t. So it’s not so much a company as more of a state of mind. A mood. A color. Like a mood ring. Don’t get stuck on labels. It’s more, you know, in a state of being.”
John Oliver did his best to explain it to Kimmel and the studio audience. The streaming site started as HBO Max. “Then it was Max. Now it’s HBO Max. And I really would not make the mistake of thinking they’re done.” John Oliver got one last shot in at his own network before saying goodbye to Jimmy Kimmel. “That’s a good way to run a company, right?”
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver airs Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max, depending on what it is calling itself this week.
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