Despite speculation late last year that he “could step down” before another Trump administration, “Real Time” host Bill Maher told CNN he won’t be leaving his program.
Maher told CNN host Jake Tapper on Friday that while he will probably retire from the stand-up tour, he won’t retire from his popular Friday night show. If anything, he will have to be forcibly evicted.
“I don’t know where this started to get rid of ‘Real Time.’ I — they’re going to have to pull me from that show,” he said.
Maher reportedly earns $10 million a year for his HBO show, which he has hosted since 2003.
During an episode of Maher’s “Club Random” podcast last December, the comical and outspoken Trump critic told guest Jane Fonda that he “might as well quit” because he doesn’t want to do material for another term with President-elect Trump in The White House.
“I can leave because I don’t want to do another one. I did Trump. I did all the Trump stuff before anyone. I called him a fraud in front of everyone. I did. He is a mob boss. I was the one who said that he would not accept the elections. I have done it.”
During Friday night’s episode of CNN’s “The Lead,” Tapper asked Maher about the quote, assuming he wanted off his show. The host said, “But there’s been talk of you possibly leaving the HBO show—”
“No,” the HBO host interjected. Tapper continued, adding, “Well, you said something to Jane Fonda — to think about it. Where are you in your career? You still have a lot of good stand-up, a lot of good jokes in you, don’t you? Like what – tell us what – what’s next?”
Maher admitted that he is planning to give up stand-up because he is tired of touring and has a lot of other things going on.
“Okay. I’m stopping doing stand-up, just because I’m tired of touring, just because I’ve been doing it for 40 years. I like it,” he said.
After comparing training to walk to training to be a boxer, he said: “I’ve been training for 40 years. I need a break. And I’m tired from traveling. I’m tired of dragging him out of bed on a Saturday morning to go somewhere after working so hard on ‘Real Time’ all week.”
He then clarified what he told Fonda during his show — that he just doesn’t want to cover Trump again.
“What I was saying was that I didn’t want to do another Trump term. Not just because I don’t think it’s going to be a good time for America. Maybe again, I won’t hate anything in advance, but because I’ve already made all the Donald Trump jokes.”
Maher added, “I don’t know what else to say about the guy. But of course, he will offer us a lot of new material. And I’m going to get into it, but I was hoping that in the episodic TV show that is America, I was hoping for some new characters.”
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