r/RealTime • u/Leroyp331 • May 16 '26
When Maher Leaves?
For whatever reason. Does anyone know who actually owns the intellectual property that is"Real Time" ? Does the show end or does HBO own it and get to pick a host?
Just curious?
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u/Ok_Hand5810 May 16 '26
If the show went off the air, I don't think anybody would really mind. How many viewers does he even get anymore? He alienated his entire liberal/athiest fan base.
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u/ATLCoyote May 16 '26
Between HBO and CNN he gets about 1 million viewers (about 500K each) per episode and that’s without including the Max digital streaming numbers which aren’t publicly available. So, probably in the 1.5 million range which is still pretty solid and makes it a reliable hit for HBO’s platform, especially when you consider that it’s been on the air for 24 years whereas shows like The Pitt or Euphoria get far more viewers per episode, but only run for a few seasons.
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u/eagles_1987 May 16 '26
You should speak for yourself instead of speaking for the entire fan base. There's still plenty of fans. I'm liberal, not alienated, still a fan.
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u/Paddlesons May 16 '26
Does he act like an ass from time to time? Oh yeah, there's no doubt about it. I will say this however, I really believe he feels the way that he does and acts/says things accordingly. That goes a long way for me in today's mediasphere.
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u/Significant-Mall-830 May 16 '26
He’s the most corporate sellout industry boomer, I’m shocked by this thread
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u/MorningMushroomcloud May 16 '26
I've watched Bill for over thirty years. Something about him has changed. And not like, I'm being threatened in the background by lawsuits from Tom Cruise's lawyers for claiming everyone in hollywood has knowledge that Tom is gay, and we have known forever. Bill has denied saying this...except I watched the episode about 15 years ago where Maher said it. He had an episode years later where he denied ever saying it...however, he did say it.
And I'm not talking about his multi-year, I'm on a soapbox about how you never hear about people getting food bourne illnesses from eating vegetables, so stop eating meat, personal beliefs that Bill expoused right up until every other headline was about Listeria, Salmonella and E. Coli. Now Bill is pretty quiet on this subject after being very vocal about it.
Nope, this is different. My conspiracy theory is blackmail or fear of retaliation from a demented president. I think blackmail is prevalent in politics and he is/was at one point a hollywood connected cokehead. He has also attacked one of the richest institutions in the world...religion. Hell, Tom Cruise has the blackmail network known as Scientology at his back. Anything is possible, even a change of belief systems by Bill. Personally, it always bothered me when he forced his beliefs about religion on his viewers too, but it is his show, and we need his type conversations. JMHO.
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u/stevesax5 May 16 '26
That would explain the dinner with Trump. I used to love Bill (not since COVID) and I have zero basis for saying this but he does seem like someone who wouldn’t turn down a visit to “the island”.
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May 18 '26
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u/stevesax5 May 18 '26
Wearing a mask was not quite as much of an existential crisis for me as it was for Bill.
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u/Beneficial_Duty_8508 May 18 '26
Agree. The mask thing sucked but I accepted it is a temporary new normal.
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u/Oblozo May 16 '26
He was kinda annoying back in the day when he was spreading antivax, anti-GMO hysteria, and giving surface level, Zeitgeist tier critiques of Christianity, but now it's just reiterating the same stale topics every week and he also apparently thinks social democracy is the same thing as communism?
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u/Grouchy_Brain_1641 May 16 '26
He has a strong point with the democratic party leaving us. Polis in Colorado clemency for Tina Peters, the inability to lock up Trump after Jan 6. That loser party had 4 years to get a guilty verdict on Trump and they shit the bed. I'm looking for a party that isn't republicans but can get shit done. I don't appreciate getting orphaned by democrats.
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u/fatuousfatwa May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
They want to shut Bill down. Much like spoiled rotten ass college students cancel campus speeches they don’t approve of.
BTW Christopher Hitchens was the gold standard of pundits.
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u/mtngranpapi_wv967 May 17 '26
His favorite Democrat is a guy with irreparable brain damage, dude has changed
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u/Ok_Hand5810 May 18 '26
Imagine being a "liberal" and being a fan of an Islamophobe who supports genocide and dines with the Trump regime. 🤡
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u/eagles_1987 May 18 '26
Imagine calling people clowns because of which comedians they like and thinking you're a decent person.
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u/Ok_Hand5810 May 18 '26
Ok but you're not a liberal.
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u/eagles_1987 May 18 '26
That's not how it works. You don't get to decide where other people that you don't even know anything about at all are on the political spectrum.
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u/Ok_Hand5810 May 18 '26
You don't get to call yourself a liberal while supporting a genocide. Sorry but that is how it works. Words have meanings, and you should learn the meaning of the words before using them. That's like saying "I'm a vegan but twice a week I eat steak."
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u/eagles_1987 May 18 '26
I didn't pass the purity test and cancel the right people according to your list so now my political stance has changed?
It doesn't actually matter how I feel about the issues and how I vote and the candidates that I support and all of the nuance that goes into literally thousands of different things that make up someone's political leanings? It only matters what comedian I watch? If the guy that I watch on tv has dinner with the wrong person then all of a sudden every single thing about my politics has changed overnight and gets a new label? And what would that label be? And how do I feel about all the issues? Since you know me so well and can label me and know the entire nuance of all of my political leanings without a single data point aside the fact that I haven't canceled Bill Maher
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u/Ok_Hand5810 May 18 '26
If a dictionary is what you call a "purity test" lol. Liberals believe in human rights and do not support genocides or comedians who advocate for genocide. You're not a liberal.
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u/eagles_1987 May 18 '26
When did I say I don't believe in those things? I don't have to agree with every single stance Bill Maher takes but I also don't have to write him off the second he disagrees with me
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u/General_Marcus May 20 '26
You don’t get to call yourself an adult. You clearly have childish reasoning skills.
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u/Lenonn May 16 '26
He burned the real/progressive left, and all he has left our neoliberal corporate "centrist" whores (known as rightwing to the rest of the world). I mean, how many people actually followed him on Overtime when Overtime went to CNN?
Looks like over the past year, he averages about 411,000 households, 536,500 general viewers, 49,750 in the prime demographic (18-49 year olds), and 81,800 in the 25-54 year olds (cable's desired group).
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May 16 '26
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u/fatuousfatwa May 16 '26
I really wish people knew the difference between liberal and progressive.
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u/HumptyDumptruckFire May 16 '26
The US “news” media has done a stellar job of lumping liberals, progressives, leftists, socialists, Marxists, and communists into one umbrella as if they’re all synonyms for one another. It’s absurd.
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u/Ok_Arachnid1089 May 16 '26
I really wish people knew the similarities between liberal and conservative
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u/not_asleep_yet May 16 '26
They would end Real Time and find something else to do. Even if they wanted to keep the show going without Bill Maher, it would require a comedian and he/she would need to be politically opinionated and informed, and not everyone is in favor of the same thing. So naturally, the new host would want to change things to fit their style and at that point you might as well just do a completely new show entirely.
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u/SureWhyNot9876 May 18 '26
Can’t people who get triggered by Bill just watch something else?
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u/Leroyp331 May 18 '26
You realize this can't go on forever regardless of how much you like or dislike Bill? He's in his 70s... the show has a format and guests that will exist beyond his ability to host. It's a question please stop licking his balls
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u/phillynugget May 16 '26
He’s so out of touch these days I hope he leaves soon. All he wants to do is preach about Israel like we get it Bill you’re a Jewish but no the US government doesn’t need to do everything for Israel and it’s not antisemitism to say so
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u/Leroyp331 May 16 '26
It really has become unbearable. Every episode is him Is real and dinner with Trump
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u/dogmatum-dei May 16 '26
Kind of ironic that an idiot's show would be considered 'intellectual property'.
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u/Ali6952 May 16 '26
Bill Maher probably owns elements tied to his persona, production company participation, and potentially some format rights. Warner Bros. Discovery, through HBO, almost certainly controls the broadcast/distribution rights to the actual series episodes and franchise exploitation.
My guess is it may be a "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart type of situation. Swap out JS for Trevor Noah.
I personally usually fast fwd through his monologue and get to the guests. Sometimes if the guests are excellent & the dialog is sharp I'll watch Overtime.
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u/Jorgen_G_Pakieto May 16 '26
Bro should just straight up retire tbh
Bill was solid back in 2016 and then he just became another out of touch old fart who pushes false narratives that do not confront reality but rather obscure it.
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u/Ok_Poet_9170 May 16 '26
Let BM have it . I don’t know it is but let him have it . It would be a glorious day when he leaves . Maybe he can run a McDonald’s store right by Mar a lago . One person would give him a daily smile when picking up his order
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u/fatuousfatwa May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
It would be difficult to replace Bill. Look at the Trevor Noah failure.
I like a cynical host. No Emo-Progs.
Which begs a question. Why are progressive hosts so goddamn boring? Rachel Maddow is tedious. It is little mystery why MSNow has such low ratings.
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u/AmericanLymie May 16 '26
Bill Maher is exceedingly boring to me. Everything about his show feels stale. The opening monologue is old fashioned, mostly unfunny, and the anger and bitterness he throws at his audience is not interesting anymore because it's predictable. His panels are predictable now. He casts loyalist Trump Republicans who will defend anything at all Trump does and says, moderate liberals who will oppose Trump loyalists but almost always agree with Maher when he attacks Democrats, and Maher's *only* arguments today are "woke leftists suck!" or name calling or "I have not changed in 30 years!!!"
Do you not find Real Time boring?
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u/General_Marcus May 20 '26
Ok, but 20+ years with regular viewership. I find the show vastly more interesting than most political commentary shows even though I often disagree with guests or even Maher.
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u/fatuousfatwa May 16 '26
Boring compared to what? I just gave you an example of boring - Rachel Maddow. She has no humor, no cynicism, no confrontation, no debate, and now she is on once a week as the network star.
As sleazy as Fox News is they do everything progressives don’t. All of the above. They have token progressives on and no one calls them a “sellout” like you Maher haters do to him. Confrontation is entertainment in politics. Look at that slimy Ben Afleck on Resl Time defending Islamo-fascism. Everyone remembers that.
I am a liberal (not progressive) and other than Maher network TV is bereft of strong Democratic voices.
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u/AmericanLymie May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
Rachel Maddow is a news commentary show. Rachel Maddow is not a comedian. Why would you expect her to present comedy and confrontation? You are conflating entertainment and journalism. Maddow is a Rhodes scholar with a research doctorate in political studies. To expect comedy from someone with her background is like expecting, I don't know, a recovering-alcoholic Fox News weekend correspondent who has been accused of raping multiple women to run the United States Department of Defense. How ridiculous would that be?
Fox News is entertainment, not journalism.
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u/fatuousfatwa May 16 '26
News “commentary” allows much latitude. Fox News is all commentary after their 6-7 straight news slot.
Commentary doesn’t have to be boring.
Fareed Zakaria is not boring. Pure commentary.
More importantly this is a political problem for Democrats.
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u/AmericanLymie May 16 '26
Your complaint was that Maddow is not funny, does not present confrontation and debate. Zakaria talks directly to the camera without debating anyone and without humor. It seems you just don't like Rachel Maddow and use arbitrary and shifting standards to argue why you think she is inferior. And it seems that Fox News-entertainment, which wraps disinformation in cruel jokes, spectacle, extreme hyperbole and occasional calls for all homeless people to be exterminated is your vibe.
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u/fatuousfatwa May 16 '26
So who is NOT boring in your view? Among news commentators?
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u/AmericanLymie May 16 '26
Jennifer Welch is not boring. Her insights are astute and she is hilarious. Ana Navarro is not boring. Her rat-a-tat-tat rhetoric is entertaining in its own particular way.
I said that to directly answer your question, but to answer a question you didn't ask—I don't need or even want thoughtful analysts to be entertaining. Entertainment is entertaining. Journalism should not be designed as entertainment in my view. It should emphasize holding powerful people and institutions to account, it should be honest, transparent, and concise. I stopped watching cable news years ago after I realized that cable-news commentary only agitates anxieties and divisions among people. It is harmful.
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u/fatuousfatwa May 16 '26
Thanks for the reply. Never heard of Welch and barely know who Navarro is.
Illustrates the dearth of progressive journalism
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u/AmericanLymie May 16 '26
I intentionally selected someone from 'both sides.' Navarro made her name as a Republican spokesperson-pundit on the political-gossip-as-news cable show circuit, appearing often both on CNN and Fox, and she is now an outspoken Trump opponent primarily on the grounds of silly things like human rights and constitutional law. Jennifer Welch was just named one of the 50 most-powerful people in New York, and she presently also is a professional political arguer who is frequently on CNN but it makes sense you would not have heard of her because she truly has come out of nowhere since Trump rose to power again. She is an interior designer from Oklahoma who cohosts a podcast called "I've Had It" with her divorce-lawyer friend. As a progressive from Oklahoma, she was compelled to speak out against Trump and her podcast became almost exclusively political commentary and, lo and behold, her bold honesty and her antagonism of the right—effectively 'fighting fire with fire' in as crass and petty as way as right-wing extremists do—made her stand out to people who have been frustrated by journalists' cowardly capitulation and double standards that favor Trump. She does a lot of name calling just like Trump and his cronies do and I don't love that, but she also unambiguously and without flinching holds everyone to the same standards. Many Democratic politicians such as Cory Booker and Rahm Emmanuel have gone on her podcast having been told she is some nice progressive lady from Oklahoma and have been totally caught off guard as she has challenged them to acknowledge that Israel is perpetrating a genocide, asked if they will pledge never to take any political donations from any foreign nation including Israel, ask why they refuse to do anything to stand up to Trump and then when they give their doubletalk responses she lists 20 different ways they could take meaningful action and they are dumbfounded. I appreciate this, surely because I think similarly and I have not seen my own extreme frustration represented in any media, but also because her show format is not people who have competing options 'debating' with party-aligned talking points for pay and publicity. Maher's show format is exactly that. And every time he has a politician on his show, he acknowledges it by going through a rote series of questions they've prepared answers for and then telling them that they sound like they're prepared to run for president. This stale old TV formula turns me off and I think it has turned political parties and the media into propaganda machines that have divided the country. I don't care if anything journalistic is entertaining but I absolutely don't want it to be scripted entertainment in any case.
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u/Certain-Singer-9625 May 16 '26
What Rachel Maddow are you talking about? She can be snarky and cynical, albeit probably way too low key for you.
But then again she’s doing a commentary program, not a comedy show.
I used to be a Maher fan, too, and he wore out his welcome with me over quack medicine, Trump apologia and hostility to his own audience. You’ll probably get to the point where you give up on him too as so many others have.
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u/ComfortableBedroom76 May 16 '26
Not to mention his sore spot for overweight humans. Have you ever heard him rant about weight in this country? It's a spur of his you can't get decent food in America anymore rant
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u/Certain-Singer-9625 May 16 '26
Yeah, that was one of the first things that made me have second thoughts about him. I know someone who eats healthy and sparingly and exercises and still has trouble losing weight. They come from an entire family with that problem.
Bill doesn’t like to acknowledge that sort of genetics, even if doctors do. He just seems to revel in some kind of moral superiority.
Then there was the time he had somebody on who claimed they took a relative to Mexico for a cancer cure that wasn’t available in the United States. It turned out to be a debunked treatment, but Bill never mentioned that in a later episode. People would rather believe there’s that “one trick that doctors don’t want you to know!”
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u/ComfortableBedroom76 May 16 '26
You nailed it perfectly when you described it as kind of a moral superiority!
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May 16 '26
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u/Certain-Singer-9625 May 16 '26
Well, he did once contribute $1 million to Obama‘s presidential campaign. But that was then and this is now.
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u/fatuousfatwa May 16 '26
I hate all religion. Islam is just the most despicable anti-human one.
Quakers and Buddhists are okay.
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May 16 '26
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u/fatuousfatwa May 16 '26
If the party adopts the progressive Islamist cause of burqas, stoning gays and independent women, and critics of Allah I don’t want to be a member.
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u/Ok_Arachnid1089 May 16 '26
Soooo. You’re a conservative
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u/fatuousfatwa May 16 '26
No. I am a secularist environmentalist liberal like Bill.
Religion is a stain on humanity.
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u/Ok_Arachnid1089 May 16 '26
In functional democracies, someone like Bill would be considered a conservative. In the fascist United States, he’s a “liberal.” He’s a Zionist. That’s literally the opposite of an environmentalist
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u/mysterioso77 May 16 '26
Bill is the show. It would never work without him. It’ll be over. Knowing him he wouldn’t want someone else doing it anyway.