{"id":368599,"date":"2026-08-11T18:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/368599\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T18:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:12:12","slug":"live-nation-which-john-oliver-once-accused-of-having-a-chokehold-on-live-entertainment-brings-john-oliver-to-st-pete-this-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/368599\/","title":{"rendered":"Live Nation, which John Oliver once accused of having a \u2018chokehold\u2019 on live entertainment, brings John Oliver to St. Pete this winter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-attachment-id=\"366328\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/arts\/live-nation-which-john-oliver-once-accused-of-having-a-chokehold-on-live-entertainment-brings-john-oliver-to-st-pete-this-winter\/attachment\/screenshot-2026-08-11-at-12-34-11-pm\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-11-at-12.34.11-PM.png?fit=1910%2C1074&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1910,1074\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Screenshot 2026-08-11 at 12.34.11\u202fPM\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt; A screengrab from \u201cLast Week Tonight with John Oliver.\u201d&lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cltampa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-11-at-12.34.11-PM.png?fit=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-11-at-12.34.11-PM.png\" alt=\"A screengrab from \u201cLast Week Tonight with John Oliver.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-366328\"  \/> A screengrab from \u201cLast Week Tonight with John Oliver.\u201d Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-_Y7uqqEFnY\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Last Week Tonight with John Oliver\/YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019re a fan of HBO\u2019s \u201cLast Week Tonight with John Oliver,\u201d you may remember an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-_Y7uqqEFnY\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">episode <\/a>from about four years ago, where host John Oliver absolutely dumps on Live Nation and Ticketmaster, accusing the conglomerate of holding customers and musicians hostage with fees and essentially having a \u201cchokehold\u201d on the live entertainment industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTicketmaster does share fees with other parties,\u201d said Oliver. \u201cSome of those other parties may also be Ticketmaster because just one year after that hearing, they completed a gigantic merger with Live Nation, which owns or operates many of the country\u2019s top music venues and call themselves the largest producer of live music concerts in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn fact, the DOJ recently alleged that the company had repeatedly strong-armed venues into using Ticketmaster and retaliated against or threatened venues that did not use its services.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Well, now Live Nation has apparently \u201cstrong-armed\u201d the Emmy-winning writer and comedian John Oliver to visit St. Petersburg\u2019s Mahaffey Theater for one night only on Tuesday, Dec. 29.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ticketmaster.com\/john-oliver-live-st-petersburg-florida-12-29-2026\/event\/0D006506A79855F3?_gl=1*1nv3lg2*_ga*MTIyNDM1MjQzNS4xNzg2NDY2ODY4*_ga_C1T806G4DF*czE3ODY0NjY4NjckbzEkZzEkdDE3ODY0NjY5NDMkajU1JGwwJGgw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tickets<\/a>, which of course are available through Ticketmaster, go on sale Wednesday, Aug. 12. It\u2019s unclear how much the tickets for the St. Pete stop will be, but available tickets for an upcoming show in New York start at $127 and go as high as $188.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786471932_614_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Youtube video\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\" nopin=\"nopin\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/altnewsfoundation.org\/cl-tampa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/tampa-newslettersignup-page\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow us:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAiECLjru3gB6BLYKOKFLfkVZsqFAgKIhAi467t4AegS2CjihS35FWb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbreak.com\/@c\/1599764?s=01\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CreativeLoafingTampa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/cltampabay\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cltampabay\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/cltampabay.bsky.social\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BlueSky<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"collection-link has-small-font-size\">This article appears in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/collections\/august-06-12-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aug. 06-12, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A screengrab from \u201cLast Week Tonight with John Oliver.\u201d Credit: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver\/YouTube If you\u2019re&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[126578,202,204,203,4742,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-368599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-john-oliver","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-pete-things-to-do","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}