Last Week Tonight with John Oliver season 4

The fourth season of late-night talk and news satire television program Last Week Tonight with John Oliver originally aired between February 12 and November 12, 2017, on HBO in the United States. The season was produced by Avalon Television and Sixteen String Jack Productions; the executive producers were host John Oliver, Tim Carvell, and Liz Stanton, with Paul Pennolino as director. Last Week Tonight aired on Sundays at 11pm, and had a total of 30 episodes. The season was generally well received, winning four Emmy Awards, one GLAAD Media Award, one TCA Award, and one WGA Award. The show continued to release the main stories of each broadcast on its YouTube channel after each episode aired.

Production
Season four aired from February 12 to November 12, 2017. The season was produced by Avalon Television and Sixteen String Jack Productions; it aired on HBO in the United States at 11pm on Sundays. Host John Oliver, Tim Carvell, and Liz Stanton were the executive producers on the season. Writers included Oliver, Carvell, Raquel D'Apice, Josh Gondelman, Dan Gurewitch, Geoff Haggerty, Jeff Maurer, Brian Parise, Scott Sherman, Ben Silva, Will Tracy, Jill Twiss, Seena Vali, and Juli Weiner. Paul Pennolino directed the season.

Promotional material for the season showed Oliver on the sets of other popular HBO shows at the time like Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley. Similar to the previous season, Oliver explained that coverage of the Trump presidency would remain minimal, as he expected other late-night shows to discuss immediate events. He continued that the in-depth pieces they were preparing did not concern "party politics"; however, Oliver clarified that Last Week Tonight would cover issues influenced by the Trump administration.

Critical reception
The fourth season garnered an approval rating of 100% based on 6 reviews on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. Some critics described the show as necessary comic relief from the activities of the Trump administration, with Les Chappell writing in The A.V. Club, "Now that 2017 is proving to be just as bad... we need Oliver’s confusion and outrage to guide us more than ever." Others also praised the season's continued quality and thorough coverage of current events. Last Week Tonight was listed on Slant Magazine list of the best shows of 2017.

Ratings
Season four of Last Week Tonight received notably good ratings in Canada: the season premiere had twice as many viewers in Canada than the previous season's first episode, despite airing simultaneously with many nightly news channels. Val Maloney writing in Media in Canada attributes this ratings spike to Canada's interest in the Trump presidency. In April 2024, HBO announced that the full episodes of seasons one through eight would be released on the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel.

Awards
For season four, Last Week Tonight received a rare second Peabody Award for "crafting a form that pushes both comedy and journalism in new, fresh, and publicly important directions". Last Week Tonight received nine Emmy nominations for season four, winning Outstanding Variety Talk Series, Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series, Outstanding Interactive Program, and Outstanding Picture Editing For Variety Programming for "Border Patrol". This season was the second in a row to receive the award for Outstanding Variety Talk Series, beating regular winners The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Additionally, the show received Outstanding Talk Show Episode at the GLAAD Media Awards for "Australia Marriage Equality", the TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sketch/Variety Shows, and the Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Comedy-Variety Talk Series.