The promotion for this new season has stressed emphatically that the show will be "basically the same" as last year. Each episode begins with quick highlights of the week’s news, followed by a lengthy, well-researched main story. That sameness extends to Last Week Tonight’s YouTube strategy, as well, with large breakout segments from each episode uploaded the day after airing, each garnering millions of views. Plepler says that strategy will continue unabated. "The best advertising we can have is letting people taste some of the unique content on the network," he said.

More researchers with backgrounds in investigative journalism

The most important changes this year, rather, are behind the scenes. "We've bolstered our research team now, so that we can go deeper on stories and give them a little more time to find stuff that is not easy to find," he said. Last Week Tonight now has four researchers, up from just one last year, from media outlets like ProPublica, Al Jazeera, and The New York Times Magazine. "We had one researcher working week to week, and I just didn't want to find him on the roof of the building one night," Oliver said. "So, then we made it two. And then I didn't want to find two people on the roof of the building. So now it's four — four and counting." Additionally, the main stories — which previously were done within the span of a week — will be given at least two weeks each if needed.

Oliver, though still considering himself a comedian first and foremost, stressed the need to tackle the stories in an investigative way. "The jokes really come later [in the process], because you can't build jokes on sand," he said. "They either don't work or they wash away. So you need to make sure that the story you want to tell is solid, and then on that you can dress everything up."

Over the course of nearly one hour, Oliver also reflected on many of the biggest moments from Last Week Tonight's first season, which you can read below. His comments have been lightly edited for length and clarity.