![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3cb9a477001a4521b8b61ea8d706303559-daysofourlives.rhorizontal.w700.jpg\")
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\n Watch him work \u2014 wearing a wig he brought to set \u2014 in a new clip.
\n Photo: Chris Haston\/Corday Productions\n <\/p>\n
And now, this: Barely a month after he popped up on General Hospital<\/a>, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver will begin a three-episode stint on Days of Our Lives on Tuesday, August 11, continuing a campaign<\/a> he announced last spring to appear on any daytime drama that will have him. After playing a shadowy superspy on GH, Oliver\u2019s role on the Peacock soap looks to be decidedly less glamorous \u2014 though potentially just as pivotal.<\/p>\n As you can see in an exclusive clip below, Oliver will inhabit \u2014 or perhaps the word is devour \u2014 the character of Devlin St. John, chief water inspector for the fictional town of Salem. Inspector St. John will ostensibly be looking into a contaminated well, grilling Days icon Susan Seaforth-Hayes (a.k.a. Julie Williams) about her unauthorized cleanup of the dirty-water source and delivering delicious daytime dialogue such as \u201cYou haven\u2019t just cleaned the well. You\u2019ve obliterated the data!\u201d During his visit to Days, Oliver\u2019s character will also take a meeting with Salem mayor Pauline Price (played by sitcom legend Jack\u00e9e Harry) and confront the shady EJ DiMera (Dan Feuerriegel) about a criminal cover-up. \u201cHe\u2019s in three shows he taped in two days,\u201d Days executive producer Ken Corday tells Vulture. \u201cHe had about 60 pages that he\u2019s in, and he knew it cold.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting Oliver into Days so soon after he announced his desire to become a soap star was not as straightforward as it might seem. That\u2019s because the sudser tapes episodes nearly a year ahead of time, which means episodes debuting this month were actually written and filmed last summer. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want until next year for these shows to air, so we lifted [already produced] shows and put him in,\u201d Corday says. Translated, that means the Days writers, led by co\u2013executive producer and showrunner Noel Maxam, went back through dozens of already-taped story outlines in search of possible plot threads in which a new character played by Oliver could logically be inserted.<\/p>\n \u201cWe basically had to shoehorn him into our schedule because we were so far ahead,\u201d Corday explains, adding that while the process \u201cwas somewhat complex,\u201d Maxam and team pulled it all off without a problem, making sure Oliver\u2019s new scenes matched what had been taped last year \u2014 and even inserting new music<\/a> (which Corday composed<\/a>, as he has for the show for decades). \u201cIt was basically \u2018We have to do this; let\u2019s get it done\u2019.\u201d the producer says. \u201cAnd we did. He was too good to pass up.\u201d<\/p>\n Though soap actors usually don\u2019t get much of a say in their characters\u2019 story lines, the Days team understandably made an exception for Oliver. While his overall story line was scripted by the show\u2019s writers, Oliver\u2019s team\u00a0also punched up his dialogue to ensure that it matched his voice. \u201cJohn and his producer had a lot of input in making the words fit the way he talks,\u201d Corday explains. \u201cHe\u2019s very machine-gun in how he speaks, so that took a little work. But in the end, we both got what we wanted.\u201d Oliver\u2019s input on his Days appearance also extended to his character\u2019s look: The very middle-management hairstyle Inspector St. John rocks on the show is in fact a wig Oliver brought to the set himself (though the show\u2019s hair-and-makeup team tweaked it a bit to make sure it was fully camera-ready).<\/p>\n Over its 61 seasons on television and streaming, Days has obviously had a number of famous faces stop by Salem, including a teenage LeAnn Rimes<\/a>, soul-music icon Smokey Robinson<\/a>, Real Housewives star Kyle Richards<\/a>, and talk-show titan Jerry Springer<\/a>. More recently, Dick Van Dyke<\/a> snagged a Daytime Emmy for a multi-episode arc that aired in 2023. But despite that parade of stars, Corday predicts that Oliver\u2019s character and story line will stand out from everything that\u2019s come before. \u201cThere\u2019s been nothing as crazy and on the nose as this,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Oliver\u2019s three episodes of Days premiere on Peacock<\/a> on August 11, 12, and 14. Watch an exclusive clip of his appearance below.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Vulture Daily<\/p>\n An entertainment newsletter for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n