I watched John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” in amazement last night. The bulk of the show was spent going after televangelists whose main purpose seems to be fund raising. As Oliver points out, preachers putting the squeeze on the faithful so they can buy a luxury jet is not an unusual event.
By the end of the segment Oliver had established his own church and solicited for donations. It’s all legal, tax deductible and tax free! His hope is the IRS will be forced to look at the wide open hole for scammers that exists today.
The video is posted below. You should watch.
Maybe just as important to those of us in TV is what makes Oliver’s show so successful. Time is spent to develop stories. And, of course, time is money.
During the story Oliver referred to his seven month of correspondence with evangelist Robert Tilton. Seven months! Is there any other show on TV where that’s possible? 60 Minutes… maybe? No others.
Someone at HBO had the cajones to make a deep investment in this show. As a viewer I think it’s money well spent.
This is similar to the SuperPAC Stephen Colbert set up to show how stupidly easy it is to put big money into elections with no oversight.
John Oliver only has to do 1 show a week, vs the 4 The Daily Show/Colbert Report did. That’s 4x as much time to be able to devote to a story. It’s good to see that he’s using the extra time well. I just wish his show was on a channel I could actually watch.