“Real Time” host Bill Maher told CNN he had no intention of leaving the show, despite speculation late last year that he “might quit” ahead of the incoming Trump administration. Ta.
Maher told CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Friday that he will likely retire from the stand-up tour, but not from his popular Friday night show. If anything, he would be forced out.
“I don’t know where the talk of getting rid of ‘Real Time’ started. I — they’re going to have to pull me off that show,” he said.
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“Real Time” host Bill Maher told CNN he has no plans to leave the HBO show because President-elect Trump won a second term in the White House. (Screenshot/CNN)
Maher reportedly earns $10 million a year from the HBO show he has hosted since 2003.
Last December, during an episode of Maher’s podcast “Club Random,” the comically outspoken Trump critic told guest Jane Fonda that he didn’t want to do a joke about the president-elect with Trump in the White House. “I don’t mind quitting,” he said.
“You can quit because you don’t want to do it anymore. I did Trump. I did the whole Trump thing before anyone else. I called him a fraud before anyone else. I said so. Him. is a mafia boss. I said it.” He wasn’t going to concede in the election, I did it. ”
During Friday night’s episode of CNN’s “The Lead,” Tapper wondered if he was planning to quit the show and asked Maher about the quote. The anchor said, “But there are rumors going around that you might be leaving the HBO show.”
“No,” interjected the HBO host. Tapper followed up further, saying, “Well, you said something to Jane Fonda about thinking about it. Where are you in your career? Still good for you. There’s a lot of stand-up and good jokes, right? Like, what’s next?
Maher admitted that he was planning to quit stand-up because he was tired of touring and had too many other things going on.
“Okay, I’m quitting stand-up because I’m tired of touring, but it’s what I’ve been doing for 40 years. I love it,” he said.
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Bill Maher on the set of his podcast “Club Random.” (Screenshot/Club Random Media)
After comparing training for stand-up to training to be a boxer, he said: — After working hard on “Real Time” all week, I got out of bed on Saturday morning to go somewhere. ”
He then revealed what he told Fonda during the show: He simply didn’t want to cover Trump again.
“What I meant was, I don’t want another Trump presidency. And it’s not just because I don’t think it’s probably going to be a great time for America. Probably, again, I don’t like anything in advance. I don’t mean to, because I’ve run out of jokes about Donald Trump.”
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Maher added, “I don’t know what else to say about this guy. But, of course, he’s going to give us a lot of new material. And I’m going to get into it, but the episode… I was hoping to be able to do that on a typical TV show.” It’s America, I was expecting some new characters. ”
