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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
John Oliver is just as confounded as everyone else about Warner Bros. Discovery\u2019s decision to revert the name of Max to HBO Max<\/a> after just two years.<\/p>\n On Sunday\u2019s episode of HBO\u2019s \u201cLast Week Tonight With John Oliver\u201d \u2014 which is streaming on, um, Max\/HBO Max \u2014 the host was discussing President Trump\u2019s antagonism toward the press, and Oliver brought up the White House\u2019s move to block access to the AP for continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as such instead of calling it the Gulf of America<\/a> as Trump has decreed.<\/p>\n More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt can take time for people to adjust to a stupid name change,\u201d Oliver observed.<\/p>\n That teed up Oliver\u2019s next breathless rant: \u201cSometimes, hypothetically, before we can get used to one dumb name\u201d \u2014 here the HBO Go logo appeared on the screen \u2014 \u201csome genius comes along and only makes it dumber\u201d (HBO Now). \u201cThen, somehow it gets dumber still\u201d (HBO Max) \u201cand against all the odds it becomes even worse\u201d (Max) \u201cbefore inexplicably going back to the stupid thing it was before\u201d (HBO Max).<\/p>\n Oliver also noted that Warner Bros. Discovery execs anticipated a response from him<\/a> \u2014 indeed, they spun it as a sort of tune-in moment. \u201cWe just cannot wait for his hot take on this whole rebrand. We think it\u2019s going to be pretty hot,\u201d WBD streaming marketing chief Shauna Spenley joked at the May 14 upfront, splashing an image of Oliver with his head face-down on a desk<\/a> on the theater\u2019s big screen<\/p>\n \u201cPlease look me in the eyes when I tell you this: Fuck you, don\u2019t tell me what to do!\u201d Oliver said with mock outrage. \u201cI\u2019m not going to do it if you want.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUnless, wait, hold on, maybe you thought baiting me like that would be a good way to stop me from doing it. But on the other hand, how could a company be that smart when they\u2019re the same company that came up with so many stupid fucking names?\u201d Oliver said.<\/p>\n Last week at the Warner Bros. Discovery advertising upfront, the media conglomerate announced the switch back to HBO Max, returning the premium cabler\u2019s name to its flagship streaming product and trying to undo what branding experts have called a big misfire<\/a> (a \u201ccorporate walk of shame,\u201d in the words of one). Here\u2019s how CEO David Zaslav explained the reasoning behind the about-face: \u201cThe powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming. Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n SEE ALSO: Branding Experts on Decision to Flip Max Back to HBO Max: \u2018A Corporate Walk of Shame\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Oliver has bitten the hand that feeds him before on this issue. He slammed his corporate overlords for their decision in 2023 to chop HBO off the streaming service\u2019s name, a change it made as it added thousands of hours of content from Discovery\u2019s networks. After WBD announced the name change to Max<\/a>, Oliver told his viewers, \u201cOur business daddy took its\u00a0content purge up a notch and threw the whole HBO out.\u201d The following week, he shared a facetious new slogan for Max<\/a>: \u201cHey, do you like HBO but want ads, the \u2018Property Brothers\u2019 but also don\u2019t like HBO? Max! There\u2019s entertainment in watching a company die!\u201d<\/p>\n And he also had expressed his displeasure with WBD\u2019s decision in February 2024 to begin delaying the release of full episodes of \u201cLast Week Tonight\u201d on YouTube<\/a> for free in an effort to spur paid signups to Max. \u201cIt\u2019s massively frustrating to me,\u201d Oliver said last fall<\/a>. \u201cI was not happy with it at all.\u201d<\/p>\n This February, episodes of \u201cLast Week Tonight\u201d quietly resumed posting to YouTube shortly after they premiere on Max.<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Oliver is just as confounded as everyone else about Warner Bros. 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