Despite speculating late last year that he “might quit” ahead of another Trump administration, “Real Time” presented. Bill Maher told CNN he is not stopping his program.
Maher told CNN host Jake Tapper on Friday that while he will likely stop doing stand-up tours, he will not stop his popular Friday night show. If anything, he will have to be forced to leave.
“I don’t know where this started about getting rid of ‘Real Time’. I… they’re going to have to drag me off that show,” he said.
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‘Real Time’ host Bill Maher tells CNN he is not quitting his HBO show because President-elect Trump gets a second term in the White House. (Screenshot/CNN)
Maher reportedly earns $10 million per year for his HBO show that he has presented since 2003.
During an episode of Maher’s “Club Random” podcast last December, the comedic and outspoken Trump critic told guest Jane Fonda that he “may stop” because he does not want to do material about a new term with the newly elected President Trump in the White House.
“Maybe I’ll stop because I don’t want to do it again. I did Trump. I’ve done all the Trump things before anyone else. I’ve called him a fraud before. I did that. He’s a mafia boss. I was the one who said, he had no intention of allowing the election, I did it.”
During Friday night’s episode of CNN’s “The Lead,” Tapper asked Maher about the quote, assuming he meant he was quitting his show. The host said, “But you’re talking about maybe quitting the HBO show…”
“No,” the HBO host interjected. Tapper continued, adding, “Well, you said something to Jane Fonda about – about thinking about that. Where are you in your career? You still have a lot of good stand-up, a lot of good jokes in you, right? Like what – tell us what – what’s next?”
Maher admitted that he plans to quit stand-up because he’s tired of touring and has too many other things going on.
“Okay. 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 podcast ‘Club Random’. (Screenshot/Club Random Media)
After comparing training for stand-up to training for a boxer, he said, “I’ve been training for forty years. I need a break. And I’m tired of traveling. — out of bed on Saturday morning to go somewhere after working so hard ‘Real-time’ all week.”
He then clarified what he said to Fonda on his show: that he simply doesn’t want to beat Trump again.
“What I said was I didn’t want to do another Trump term. Not just because I don’t think it’s possibly going to be a great time for America. Maybe again, I’m not going to hate anything, 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 man. But of course he’s going to provide us with a lot of new material. And I’ll get into it, but I was hoping that in the episodic television show that’s America, I was hoping for some new characters.”
