Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Net Neutrality, Tony Abbott, 87th Scripps National Spelling Bee
TV Flash files “Net Neutrality, Tony Abbott, 87th Scripps National Spelling Bee” as a desk essential hour — Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (2014–present) on HBO, season 1, episode 5, aired 2014-06-01, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E05: listed hour 5 of 371 in the Last Week Tonight with John Oliver guide, hour 5 of 24 in season 1. It aired 2014-06-01 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Fareed Zakaria, General Motors, Right to Be Forgotten” (S01E04). Next is “FIFA and the World Cup, Bashar al-Assad” (S01E06).
Essential hour: “Net Neutrality, Tony Abbott, 87th Scripps National Spelling Bee”. Net Neutrality sits in an early deep-dive people hoped you would skip: twenty minutes on a lobby, comedy as homework.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
This week's topics include the rise of the far right political parties in Europe, the Ukrainian election, Afghanistan, Net Neutrality, Australia's hard-line right-wing Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and the 2014 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Net Neutrality, Tony Abbott, 87th Scripps National Spelling Bee sit in the Last Week Tonight with John Oliver guide?
S01E05 is listed hour 5 of 371 — hour 5 of 24 in season 1, season 1 episode 5.
When did Last Week Tonight with John Oliver S01E05 air?
Net Neutrality, Tony Abbott, 87th Scripps National Spelling Bee aired 2014-06-01 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Do I need to watch every week in order?
Each episode is a topical deep dive, not a serial plot. Jump at a subject you care about; net-neutrality-era segments are the origin myth of the civic-homework clip.
In the series
Why this series still plays
John Oliver turned late-night into a research department with punchlines: twenty-minute deep dives on net neutrality, prisons, and whatever lobbyists hoped you would never google. Civic homework disguised as comedy — explainer satire that actually moved petitions, and a host who treats footnotes like setups.
Sunday night, and the group chat is doing homework. After *The Daily Show*, John Oliver's HBO late-night series debuted April 2014 with Tim Carvell and James Taylor in the engine room: twenty-minute deep dives on net neutrality, prisons, and whatever lobbyists hoped you would never google. Segments sparked real petitions and news cycles. Multiple Emmys for variety talk. Footnotes as setups. (Spoiler-free: the joke comes with a syllabus.) Lana can have the tuxedo. **The ship is the explainer, and the replies are…
Open the Last Week Tonight with John Oliver package · Season 1 hub
Filed against
- John Oliver as Host
John Oliver’s correspondent weather on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart made a fake newscast feel like a civic classroom, then Last Week Tonight turned the same research into twenty-minute deep dives — 2000s catalog Stewart era, 2010s…
Also in season 1
- S01E01 Indian General Election, NSA's New Image, POM Wonderful LLC v. Coca-Cola Co.
- S01E02 Death Penalty, François Hollande, the Sultan of Brunei
- S01E03 Bill Nye, the U.S. Senate Election in Kentucky, Global Warming Controversy
- S01E04 Fareed Zakaria, General Motors, Right to Be Forgotten
- S01E06 FIFA and the World Cup, Bashar al-Assad
- S01E07 Stephen Hawking, Immigration Reform, Washington Redskins