HBO’s ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ Renewed Through 2017

However brief the window may have been, we can officially say goodbye to dreams of John Oliver returning to host The Daily Show after Jon Stewart. HBO has officially locked down its breakout star for two more seasons of the acclaimed Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, bringing more belated-but-hard-hitting journalism through 2017.

Having quickly broken out from the shadows of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report in 2014, with a Writer Guild Award to match, Last Week Tonight recently began its second season on HBO, set for 35 episodes over the course of the year. Seasons 3 and 4 will take us through 2017, keeping the same format and episode order.

Said HBO of the not-coincidentally timed renewal announcement:

We are incredibly proud to have John as part of the HBO family. His unique ability to deliver socially significant commentary week after week, along with his innate comedic brilliance, puts John in a class by himself.

Last Week Tonight certainly has offered an alternative to the nightly news parody format, primarily focusing on 1-2 topics per week, and often releasing more than half of the episode’s content over YouTube the following day. Oliver’s segments often prove a hit with social media as well, most recently championing a movement to have Marlboro solve its marketing woes by adapting “Jeff the Diseased Lung,” as its new mascot, as part of a segment exploring international tobacco regulation.

We’ve included the latest Last Week Tonight (along with a personal favorite) below, but are you happy to see John Oliver renewed on HBO through 2017? What major topics should the former Daily Show star tackle next?