The Daily Show’s correspondent, John Oliver, left The Daily Show at the end of last year. Oliver left for what was then a show in development by HBO. It premiered this past Sunday, April 27^th.

Last Week Tonight does not really compete with The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, Comedy Central’s reigning champions of late night satire. Although the Colbert Report is now a lame duck (Stephen Colbert will be taking up the Late Show on CBS), Last Week Tonight airs on Sundays and as Oliver says in his show’s trailer: “If a government collapses on a Monday… we will cover it on Sunday. If the stock market crashes on Wednesday… again, Sunday. If a cabinet member resigns on a Sunday… then we would cover it that day, unless it happens after 11:30 which case we would cover it the following Sunday.”

The first episode of the show, available for free on YouTube (somewhat surprising for HBO) is a mixture of the same formula, which makes The Daily Show so good. Cable News bashing? Check. Loving progressive causes? Check. Mocking incompetence? Check.

The show is very good, and is reminiscent of this past summer, when Oliver hosted The Daily Show. Compared to his short tenure as temporary host, Last Week Tonight is a much less flashy outfit. The show conducts itself rather serenely, moving from object to object effectively — showing that the writers behind Last Week Tonight are at least as good as those on The Daily Show.

Yet, the difference is stark. Gone is the introduction — saying the date in a dramatic news announcer voice. Gone is the rock-star camera pan. But John Oliver’s new show is still extremely good. It is subtler than The Daily Show, mocking by irony and example rather than Stewart’s direct lambast.

Last Week Tonight is a must see for satire on Sunday nights. It is after Game of Thrones at 9 pm and airs at 11 pm. From Comedy Central’s halls seems to spring all the best comedians of this decade, as Stewart gains more fame, Colbert goes to CBS, and Oliver leaves Stewart’s shadow for his own show.

With the broadening viewership of satirical news shows as the viewership of more traditional channels like CNN falls (could have something to do with the last month’s non-stop continuing coverage on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370), it seems that everything is suddenly satire.