John Oliver Jokes Warner Bros. Discovery Is Taking “Its Content Purge Up a Notch” With HBO Max Rebrand

By Raven Brunner Twitter @raventbrunner

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John Oliver made a harsh gibe toward Warner Bros. Discovery for rebranding HBO Max to Max.

During Sunday’s (April 16) broadcast of Last Week Tonight, Oliver kicked off the show with a quick news recap, admitting it had “been a busy week!”

The host joked, “Our business daddy took its content purge up a notch and just threw the whole HBO out.” The episode proceeded to focus on “the conditions farmworkers face, how we’ve failed to protect them, and the Jolly Green Giant’s body hair.”

Last week, Warner Bros. Discovery revealed that their new platform Max, which will combine content from HBO Max and Discovery+, is set to launch May 23, 2023.

The new streamer features the tagline “the one to watch,” and a spokesperson stated that Max will “set the standard across all genres of entertainment” because of its “broad array of quality choices for everybody.”

The new product features three price tiers, with the ad-free version set at $15.99 per month, which is the current ad-free price of HBO Max. The ad-lite plan is priced at $9.99 per month, and the ultimate plan is $19.99 per month.

In a press release, JB Perrette, President & CEO of Global Streaming & Games at Warner Bros. Discovery, said, “From the biggest superheroes to real life champions; from culture-shaping dramas to taste-shaping entertainment; from fantastical realms to the realest of worlds, Max will offer an unrivaled range of choice.”

Perrette continued, “This new brand signals an important change from two narrower products, HBO Max and Discovery+, to our broader content offering and consumer proposition. While each product offered something for some people, Max will have a broad array of quality choices for everybody.”

In the past, Oliver has not held back his criticism of Warner Bros. Discovery. He slammed the company for the controversial cancellation of Batgirl in August.

“Hi there, new business daddy seems like you’re doing a really great job. I do get the vague sense that you’re burning down my network for the insurance money, but I’m sure that that will all pass,” he said at the time.

The premiere of Max will mark the end of HBO Max, but Discovery+ will remain a standalone platform. The platform will house several new original shows, including the DC series The Penguin, a second Game of Thrones prequel, a spin-off of The Big Bang Theory, “fresh take” on The Conjuring and a new Harry Potter series.