Bill Maher Clarifies He Never Wants To Leave HBO, But Likely Retiring From Stand-Up

Bill Maher says he is probably going to retire from stand-up comedy, but has no plans to step down from hosting the HBO program "Real Time." 

"I don’t know where this started about I’m getting rid of ‘Real Time,'" Maher told CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Friday. "They’re going to have to drag me off of that show."

We can help answer that.

The speculation started last month after Maher expressed burnout on his podcast "Club Random" and said he "may quit" the HBO show because he doesn't want to cover a second term of Donald Trump.

"I may quit because I don't want to do another. I did Trump. I did all the Trump stuff before anybody. I called him a con man before anybody. I did. He's a mafia boss. I was the one who said he wasn't going to concede the election. I've done it," he said.

Tapper pressed Maher on that quote, saying "But there’s talk promulgated by you about maybe you quitting the HBO show." "No," the HBO host interjected.  

Tapper followed up, adding, "Well, you said something to Jane Fonda about thinking about that. Where are you in your career? You still got a lot of good stand-up, a lot of good jokes in you, right? Like what — tell us what — what’s next?"

That is when Maher claimed he was referring to stand-up (though he was clearly talking about his HBO show during the podcast), saying: "OK. I am stopping doing stand-up, just because I’m tired of touring, just because I’ve been doing it for 40 years. I love it."

Okay.

Bill Maher unleashed a great rant about protesters blocking traffic and disrupting the lives of normal people. Watch a video of his thoughts. (Credit: HBO)

So, "Real Time" isn't going anywhere? It doesn't sound like it. 

Granted, the television business is unpredictable and growing increasingly cheap. HBO has already fallen under the tutelage of several parent companies over the past decade, now residing under Warner Bros. Discovery, a newly formed spin-off company in mountains of debt. 

Perhaps the best interpretation of Maher's comments is that he will do the show as long as HBO continues to pay him eight figures a year to do so. Should HBO get cheap, Maher would have any number of suitors outside (like Amazon and Netflix) to compete with HBO for his services.

But HBO would have to get pretty cheap not to retain Maher for the foreseeable future. 

While Maher turns 69 next week, he's never been more valuable to the political landscape – largely because there have never been fewer voices willing to tell the truth.

The truth remains the foundation of Maher's relationship with his audience. Sure, he is an avowed liberal, but he criticizes and mocks the left as much as the right. There's a stark contrast between Maher and the other liberal late-night hosts, like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.

From the beginning of June through the end of December, the Media Research Center found that the following five late-night shows hosted 120 liberal guests and only one conservative:

ABC’s "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," NBC’s "Late Night with Seth Meyers" and "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," CBS’s "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and Comedy Central’s "The Daily Show."

Conversely, Maher tries to book at least one voice of opposition each week for his panel. 

Put simply, Colbert and Kimmel's prioritization of scoring far-left points over making their shows funny has made Maher (and Greg Gutfled) more valuable. Humor still matters in late-night comedy. 

Imagine that.

As for his future on the road, Maher released his latest stand-up special last Friday on Max, called "Is Anyone Else Seeing This?" 

If that is his last, he goes on out with quite a bang, delving into the topics he claims trouble him most – like Donald Trump, wokeness,  trans people, drag queens, "cancel culture," and those with larger body sizes.

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