During the last 2025 episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the comedian announced the launch of an auction website that aims to raise money for public media
John Oliver has launched a new auction website
John Oliver has made a desperate bid to tackle Donald Trump’s defunding of public media, which is having an impact on news stations across the country.
On Sunday night, the comedian revealed on his HBO show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, that he is launching an auction website – named John Oliver’s Junk – to raise money for public media. The Trump administration decided to eliminate $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting earlier this year.
This has led to a loss of crucial funds that support infrastructure, programming and operations, leading to potential downsizing, programming cuts and even station closures. While the impact is felt most acutely by smaller and rural stations, even larger broadcasters in the Northeast are facing immense financial pressure with key effects including the loss of CPB-negotiated music licensing agreements, which could reduce the amount of available content, and the dismantling of shared resources that individual stations cannot afford on their own.
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In his final episode of 2025, John, 48, announced he and his show are doing their part to help. The new auction website features 65 items up for bid, including an original 1987 painting by late PBS icon Bob Ross, Cabin at Sunset, fetching $51,000 so far. John’s idea for the auction website came from the Bob Ross estate which recently sold three paintings and raised $662,000 to support public broadcasting.
The comedian wants to raise money for public media(Image: Internet Unknown)
John said the auction would continue through November 25. He said, “We’ve actually accumulated a bunch of weird artifacts on this show over the years that we could definitely auction off to raise some much needed money.
“I am proud to announce last week tonight’s first ever auction in aid of public media. This is real!” Proceeds from the auction go to the Public Media Bridge Fund, which is helping local public broadcasters in temporarily finding new funds following the closure of the CPB.
Among the items on John Oliver’s Junk is Russell Crowe’s jock strap, which he wore in the major motion picture Cinderella Man and was later purchased by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Buyers can also place a bid for Mrs. Cabbage Oliver, the comedian’s on-screen wife that he married during a wedding officiated by Steve Buscemi.
There are also five wax figures of presidents of the United States, golden Adidas sneakers, a trip to New York to meet John and the chance to appear in a photo over his shoulder during an episode. Over the summer, the CPB announced it would close after being defunded by Congress – marking the end of a nearly six-decade era in which it fueled the production of renowned educational programming, cultural content and even emergency alerts.
Donald Trump decided to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, leading to its closure(Image: Getty Images)
The demise of the corporation was a direct result of the president’s targeting of public media, which he has repeatedly said is spreading political and cultural views antithetical to those the United States should be espousing. The closure has had a profound impact on the journalistic and cultural landscape – in particular, public radio and TV stations in small communities across the country.
CPB helped fund both PBS and NPR, but most of its funding was distributed to more than 1,500 local public radio and television stations around the country. It also had deep ties to much of the nation’s most familiar programming, from NPR’s All Things Considered to Sesame Street, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and the documentaries of Ken Burns.
The corporation said its end, 58 years after being signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, would come in an “orderly wind-down.” In a statement, it said the decision came after the passage through Congress of a package that clawed back its funding for the next two budget years – about $1.1 billion.
Then, the Senate Appropriations Committee reinforced that policy change by excluding funding for the corporation for the first time in more than 50 years as part of a broader spending bill. “Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” said Patricia Harrison, the corporation’s president and CEO.
