Over the past few years, John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver has developed a formidable online presence, thanks largely to its presence on Reddit. Though its millions of dedicated subreddit followers have stayed loyal, three of the biggest Reddit communities associated with Oliver’s show have recently changed their focus.
The largest of the communities – r/LastWeekTonight – has rebranded itself as a hub for discussions about HBO programming in general, rather than Oliver’s show in particular. This shift in emphasis away from the comedian has been received differently by the nearly 1.3 million users subscribed to the subreddit, with some members expressing sadness that their discussions relating to Oliver have all but disappeared.
The other two subreddits in question are r/JohnOliver and r/HBOJohnOliver. The former subreddit has shifted away from discussions related to Oliver’s show and towards those about his stand-up comedy, along with posts about his other appearances on television and radio. Meanwhile, the latter subreddit is now solely dedicated to news and discussion related to the HBO show Westworld.
It’s unclear why the moderators of these three subreddits have chosen to move away from Oliver’s show specifically, but it appears that with the increasing popularity of Last Week Tonight comes a desire to look beyond discussions about the show and to branch out into other forms of content related to Oliver and HBO as a whole.
All in all, these changes are symptomatic of the changing landscape of Reddit and how people are consuming popular culture. As new shows and personalities emerge, it’s to be expected that parts of the Reddit hivemind shift and evolve in order to keep up. For now, it appears that John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight may have to look for its fans elsewhere.