John Oliver EVISCERATES Bill Maher (in the Ratings)

HBO newcomer John Oliver has surpassed HBO mainstay Bill Maher in ratings, per the Hollywood Reporter.

Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, a sort of condensed IPA version of The Daily Show, is averaging 4.1 million viewers across all platforms, slightly higher than Maher’s 4 million — not bad, given that Oliver’s show hasn’t even been around one Friedman Unit.

The premium channel’s strategy of posting the main portion of Oliver’s show online the next day is certainly helping, as it leads to an internet-wide write up of the show, usually with intensely active verbs, a practice the host himself literally destroyed in a recent segment.

But Oliver is also getting plenty of real-time views, in some cases beating former follow-up the Colbert Report.

[h/t Hollywood Reporter]
[Image via screengrab]

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