John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight, has expressed his dismay over the recent cancellation of The late Show with Stephen Colbert, calling it “terrible, terrible news for the world of comedy.” Oliver, a former correspondent on The Daily Show like Colbert, shared a personal connection to late-night television, having grown up watching David Letterman’s show in England. He described the genre as a “glamorous world” and found appearing on both Letterman’s and Colbert’s programs to be “one of the most fun things.” Oliver anticipates colbert’s next move, stating, “that man will not stop.”
Colbert informed his live audience of the cancellation during a taping of his show at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, which was met with boos. He had been notified of the decision the previous evening. CBS attributed the cancellation to “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” emphasizing that it was unrelated to the show’s performance or content.
Simultaneously occurring, Last Week Tonight is currently on hiatus and is scheduled to return on July 27. Oliver was speaking with reporters in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he discussed the minor league baseball team’s rebranding to the Erie Moon Mammoths.The team, formerly the Erie seawolves, will play four games under the new name, with the permanence of the moniker yet to be decided. Oliver stated that the decision rests with the people of Erie and the team itself.
Erie Mayor Joe Schember proclaimed the day as Moon Mammoth Day and presented Oliver with a key to the city. The new team name is inspired by George Moon’s 1991 discovery of a mammoth skeleton in Lake Pleasant. Saturday night’s game saw a record attendance of 7,070 at UPMC Park.
