Despite speculation late last year that he “might resign” before the new Trump administration, the host of the “Real Time” show Bill Maher he told CNN that he is not giving up on his program.
Maher told CNN host Jake Tapper on Friday that while he will likely retire from the stand-up tour, he will not be stepping down from his popular Friday night show. If anything, he will have to be forced out.
“I don’t know where this thing about me 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 that he is not giving up on his HBO show because of President-elect Trump’s second term in the White House. (Screenshot/CNN)
Maher is reportedly making money 10 million dollars a year for his HBO show, which he has been hosting since 2003.
During an episode of Maher’s “Club Random” podcast last December, the comical and outspoken Trump critic told guest Jane Fonda that “can give up” because he doesn’t want to do material about another term with President-elect Trump in the White House.
“Maybe I’ll quit because I don’t want to do anything else. I did Trump. I did all the Trump stuff before everybody. I called him a fraud before everybody. I did. He’s a mob boss. I was the one who said he didn’t want to recognize the election, I did it.”
During Friday night’s episode of CNN’s “The Lead,” Tapper asked Maher about the quote, assuming he meant to leave his show. The host said, “But there’s talk that you might be leaving the HBO show…”
“No,” the HBO host interjected. Tapper followed up, adding, “Well, you said something to Jane Fonda about — about thinking about it. Where are you in your career? You’ve still got a lot of good stand-up, a lot of good jokes in you, right? Like — tell us what—what’s next?”
Maher admitted that he plans to quit stand-up because he is tired of touring and has too many other things to do.
“OK. I’m quitting stand-up, just because I’m tired of touring, just because I’ve been doing it for 40 years. I love it,” he said.
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Bill Maher on the set of his “Club Random” podcast. (Screenshot/Club Random Media)
After comparing training for stand-up to training for a boxer, he said, “I’ve been training for 40 years. I need a break. And I’m tired of traveling. I’m tired of pulling — out of bed on a Saturday morning to go somewhere after being so worked hard “Real Time” all week.”
He then clarified what he told Fonda during his show – that he simply didn’t want to cover Trump again.
“What I said is that I don’t want to be another Trump term. Not just because I don’t think it’s going to be a great time for America. Maybe again, I won’t hate anything in advance, but because I’ve already made all the jokes about Donald Trump.”
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Maher added, “I don’t know what else to say about the guy. But of course, he’s going to give us a lot of new material. I’m going to get into that, but I was hoping that on the episodic television show This is America, I was hoping for some new characters.”
