Think back to this time last year. Oliver had a lightly known podcast and was one of the better correspondents on The Daily Show. He gets picked to pinch hit for Jon, and everyone is unsure how things will turn out. By the end of the first week, it becomes obvious that he's either just as good as Stewart or better. He interviews Kristen Gillibrand, and proceeds to conduct not just one of the best interviews of the year for the show, but one of the best interviews in the history of the show, and possibly one of the best interviews on TV this year *period*. By the end of the eight-week run, there's a palpable sense of "Oh, crap: is this over already?" HBO picks him up and signs him for apparently no other reason than "Someone's gotta give this guy a show, and why not us?" He leaves TDS to a hero's goodbye, with the general feeling that this is a guy that no one seems to have a bad thing to say about.
Another perspective: I went to see Oliver late in 2012 over at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana. The theater seats 3300, but they closed the upper level and the two outer sections of the lower level. I paid half-price for my tickets. By the time he returned to Chicago in fall this year, he was playing the Chicago Theater in downtown, and there were no discounted tickets. All the levels were open, and by the time I went to buy full-price tickets, I was in the top balcony. I'm sure there are other nominees, but that's my pick. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
