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Why Is Comedian Russell Howard Quitting TV? (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Russell Howard, the comedian famous for his satirical shows like Russell Howard’s Good News and The Russell Howard Hour, has announced his departure from television after nearly 20 years in the industry.

The 44-year-old comedian, who became a household name with his political humor and witty commentary, shared his decision to step away from TV during a Have A Word Podcast appearance.

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Russell Howard’s Shift Towards Standup Comedy

Howard admitted that while TV provided a great platform for his career, he now prefers the spontaneity and thrill of stand-up comedy. He revealed that touring and performing live are far more...

British comedian Russell Howard will premiere his new stand-up special “Russell Howard Live at the London Palladium” as a global streaming event on Jan. 15 via the Driift platform.

The 60-minute special was recorded during Howard’s fourth international tour. The stream will include “Off The Cuff,” a bonus program featuring exclusive content. Howard will also participate in a live interactive session with fans during the launch night.

The special caps off Howard’s extensive international tour spanning 237 shows across 141 cities in 30 countries, selling over 335,000 tickets. The tour included 13 performances at London’s Palladium and runs in the U.S., Canada, Europe, New Zealand and Australia. Additional dates are scheduled for early 2025 in the Nordics, Hong Kong, India and Singapore before returning to Europe and the U.S.

Howard’s recent ventures include the “Five Brilliant Things” podcast, which launched in the Top 10 Comedy Podcasts, featuring guests like John Oliver, Jimmy Carr and Greg Davies.

It was announced today, 25th September, that Russell Howard launches his new podcast Wonderbox, produced by Avalon, on the 11th October 2023.

A Wonderbox is a place where you keep little reminders of what makes life worth living. Each week Russell will chat to a special guest about what they’d keep in their Wonderbox, recounting the most memorable and funniest moments of their lives.

Russell begins the series chatting with 2023 Emmy Award ‘Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics’ & Brit Awards ‘Best New Artist’ Nominated Sam Ryder plus BAFTA Nominated Munya Chawawa (Race Around Britain) in a special bumper double episode, followed by stars including Emmy Award winning John Oliver (Last Week Tonight), Jimmy Carr, Taylor Tomlinson, Jack Whitehall , Greg Davies , Guz Khan, Jen Brister, Jordan Gray and BAFTA Nominated Rachel Parris (Late Night Mash).

Russell Howard said “I love doing this podcast. I get interesting guests and I ask them what they love.

Exclusive: British comedian Russell Howard is launching a comedy podcast featuring the likes of John Oliver, Jimmy Carr and Taylor Tomlinson.

The stand-up, who has had his own specials on Netflix, will release the first episode of Wonderbox on October 11. The podcast launch coincides with the East Coast U.S. leg of Howard’s latest tour.

Avalon, which manages the comedian and writer, is producing. The format will see Howard discussing with special guests their ‘Wonderbox, which is “a place where you keep the little reminders that make life worth living.”

Each week, Howard will ask the guest about what they’d keep in their Wonderbox, recounting the most memorable and funny moments of their lives. Listen to the trailer below.

The series will begin with a conversation with Emmy-nominated singer Sam Ryder and BAFTA-nominated comedian Munya Chawawa (Race Around Britain) in a special bumper double episode.

Guests will include...

Standup comedian Russell Howard, beloved in his native U.K. for Sky’s long-running “The Russell Howard Hour” and known to global audiences for Netflix specials “Lubricant” (2021) and “Recalibrate” (2017), is once again taking his live show through the States.

“The unadulterated giddiness of U.S. audiences” is what he’s most looking forward to about the 15-stop U.S. leg, kicking off Oct. 4 in Durham, North Carolina.

“As much as I love performing stand-up in the U.K., it’s like Mordor in comparison,” he told TheWrap ahead of the exclusive premiere of the “Russell Howard Live 2023” trailer, seen above. “In the U.K., you’ll get a standing ovation at the end of the show, whereas in America you get one at the beginning as well!”

As for which stop he’s most looking forward to, Howard has his eye on the Oct. 12 stop at New York City’s...

Exclusive: British comedian Russell Howard is returning to Netflix with a stand-up comedy special and a documentary.

Howard will launch stand-up special Lubricant and Until the Wheels Come Off, a companion documentary, on the streamer on December 14. It is thought that it marks the first stand-up special to be launched in unison with a doc.

Howard, who is behind Sky’s The Russell Howard Hour and BBC’s Russell Howard’s Good News, was about to prepare for the biggest world tour of his career in 2019. He had just got married, was turning 40 and was celebrating his 20th year in comedy. For the first time in his career, he was allowing cameras to follow his life, whilst also navigating huge changes in his personal life. Then bats got involved.

As Russell’s wife resumed duties on the NHS front line, he was sent to his parents to lockdown in his childhood bedroom.

Exclusive: Sky, Comcast’s European pay-tv giant, has commissioned Avalon to produce another two seasons of topical comedy show The Russell Howard Hour.

The renewal will take Howard’s show into its sixth season on Sky One and Now TV. The show also streams in the U.S. on his YouTube channel, which has more than 1M subscribers.

Avalon, which makes HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, said Season 4 attracted some of The Russell Howard Hour’s best ratings since its launch. As well as Howard riffing on the horrors of 2020, it featured in-depth interviews with the likes of Matthew McConaughey and Jack Black.

Sky entertainment boss Philip Edgar-Jones said: “Russell Howard is the sharpest comic on TV and we are thrilled that he’ll be restlessly and hilariously nailing our messed-up world for at least another two seasons on Sky One.”

Executive producers are Richard Allen-Turner, James Taylor,...

Kirsten Howard Feb 22, 2018

In news that should delight Taskmaster fans across the land, there are now officially four new series of the hit show on the horizon...

Award-hoarding Dave comedy Taskmaster is here to stay for a while, UKTV has announced today. It's ordered four (four!) new series of the smash hit show, which will consist of ten new 60-minute episodes a pop.

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Greg Davies will be back as the omnipotent Taskmaster, alongside assistant Alex Horne, for all four runs, it's also been confirmed.

The sixth series, set to air in the spring, will welcome Alice Levine (My Dad Wrote A Porno), Asim Chaudhry (People Just Do Nothing), Liza Tarbuck (Upstart Crow), Russell Howard (The Russell Howard Hour...

Several of the women who have accused Dustin Hoffman of sexual harassment have thanked John Oliver for confronting the actor recently. During an anniversary screening of Wag the Dog, which included a Q&A that Oliver moderated, the host of HBO's Last Week Tonight questioned Hoffman about his alleged sexual misconduct. The confrontation was documented by those who were at the screening and a video even made its way online. Now, Hoffman's accusers have penned a thank you to Oliver for his actions.

Anna Graham Hunter, Wendy Riss Gatsiounis, Kathryn Rossetter, Melissa Kester, Cori Thomas, and two anonymous women who have accused Dustin Hoffman of sexual harassment signed the statement, which was released by Hunter on Twitter. Hunter was the first to publicly accuse Dustin Hoffman of sexual harassment, which she says took place during the filming of the Death of a Salesman TV movie in 1985 when she was just 17-years-old.

Seven women who have accused Dustin Hoffman of sexual harassment and/or abuse have signed an open letter thanking John Oliver for confronting the actor over his alleged misconduct during a panel in New York City on December 4. Oliver was moderating a discussion with Hoffman, Robert De Niro, director Barry Levinson, and producer Jane Rosenthal for the 20th anniversary of “Wag the Dog” when he pressured Hoffman into publicly addressing the allegations against him.

Read More:John Oliver Breaks Silence on Confronting Dustin Hoffman Over Sexual Harassment: ‘It Felt Unavoidable’

The open letter was posted on Twitter by Anna Graham Hunter, who was the first woman to come forward with an allegation against Hoffman. Hunter says the actor made sexually inappropriate comments towards her and groped her when she was a 17-year-old intern on the set of the 1985 TV movie “Death Of A Salesman.” The message is signed by Hunter, Wendy Riss Gatsiounis,...

2017-12-27T04:14:51-08:00John Oliver Regrets Confronting Dustin Hoffman

John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, says he regrets confronting Dustin Hoffman at a recent panel discussion. Oliver challenged Hoffman over allegations of sexual harassment, and Hoffman reacted irritably. Oliver says he regrets the incident because it was not "productive," largely because Hoffman avoided taking responsibility for the alleged incidents.

Via Variety.

John Oliver stopped by “The Russell Howard Hour” to discuss his recent tense exchange with Dustin Hoffman over sexual harassment allegations waged against the actor.

“It felt unavoidable and that we had to have a discussion about it,” Oliver said Friday on the British comedy news show. “It wasn’t ideal that it became such a big story because then it became about my questions rather than his answers. The questions weren’t particularly remarkable, but his answers were kind of not great.

In an interview on UK talk show The Russell Howard Hour, John Oliver expressed regret over the outcome of his “failed” confrontation with Dustin Hoffman during a Wag the Dog Q&A session in New York this month. “It didn’t really go anywhere constructive, so the whole thing made me feel sad,” Oliver said. When Howard, whose show airs on Sky One, said it was better for Oliver to have brought up allegations of sexual harassment against Hoffman than avoiding the subject…...

In an interview on UK talk show The Russell Howard Hour, John Oliver expressed regret over the outcome of his “failed” confrontation with Dustin Hoffman during a Wag the Dog Q&A session in New York this month. “It didn’t really go anywhere constructive, so the whole thing made me feel sad,” Oliver said. When Howard, whose show airs on Sky One, said it was better for Oliver to have brought up allegations of sexual harassment against Hoffman than avoiding the subject…...

John Oliver dubbed his recent confrontation with Dustin Hoffman a failure in a new interview on Sky One's The Russell Howard Hour. The Last Week Tonight host grilled the famous actor about sexual misconduct allegations earlier this month.

In the weeks leading up to a December 4th panel honoring the 20th anniversary of the Hoffman film Wag the Dog, the actor was accused by multiple women of groping and making inappropriate comments. "I knew the stories were out there, and I heard there were a few more coming, so [bringing them up] felt unavoidable,...

John Oliver admitted that his confrontation with Dustin Hoffman earlier this month over accusations of sexual misconduct by the Oscar winner could have been handled differently. In an interview last Friday on Sky One’s “The Russell Howard Hour,” Oliver said that he “tried and failed” to start a dialogue with Hoffman during a live panel celebrating the 20th anniversary of Hoffma’s film “Wag the Dog.” “It felt unavoidable and that we had to have a discussion about it,” Oliver told Howard. “It wasn’t ideal but it became such a big story — but it became about my questions rather than his answers.

Several weeks after he made headlines for publicly confronting Dustin Hoffman over allegations of sexual harassment and abuse, John Oliver is finally breaking his silence on the matter. Oliver asked Hoffman about the accusations while moderating a panel in New York City on December 4 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Barry Levinson’s “Wag the Dog.” Panelists included Levinson, Hoffman, Robert De Niro, and producer Jane Rosenthal.

Read More:John Oliver Forces Dustin Hoffman to Confront Sexual Harassment Claims: ‘You Have Indicted Me’

Oliver told Hoffman that the allegations against him were “hanging in the air” and that they would be “something we’re going to have to talk about.” The two engaged in an intense back and forth, with Oliver pressing Hoffman on the allegations and Hoffman firing back that Oliver was “making assumptions” about him. While some praised Oliver for confronting Hoffman, others found it unprofessional to do so in a public setting.