Breaking News: SoHo Scoops Bill Maher

About time — SoHo at last will air Real Time With Bill Maher.

The politically incorrect talk show’s 15th season will screen 11.00 Mondays on Sky’s premium drama channel from April 17 (it will start with the US April 7 episode because the show’s on hiatus on April 14).

For years SoHo has opted not to pick up the HBO property, opting instead for the inferior likes of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (whose show Maher’s will follow).

“I am a genuine fan of Real Time and The Daily Show,” Sky entertainment chief Travis Dunbar told ScreenScribe.tv three years ago when asked why neither series wasn’t on SoHo.

“Both shows are nothing short of brilliant, but at the end of the day, SoHo has a pretty strict and established template of quality, provocative, and innovative drama.

“To try and mess with a formula this successful, irrespective of the merits of the shows you mention, would be in our opinion unwise. It is not broken, and we certainly do not intend to fix it.”

He also wasn’t convinced that Maher would travel as well as Oliver.

Why the change of heart? “We felt it was both topical and timely to introduce Real Time given the surge in our news services viewership during and post the recent US election and the global fascination with US domestic politics thereafter,” Dunbar says.

But don’t bet on that extending to SoHo picking up another excellent political series denied to Kiwis, Showtime’s Circus, which has just been renewed.

Meanwhile, Real Time isn’t the only political blast heading our way: SoHo will also premiere season six of Veep next month.

It will screen 9.00 Thursdays from April 20 and will follow new episodes of Silicon Valley from April 27.

And if Maher isn’t subversive enough for you, SoHo will premiere the stand-up special, Jerrod Carmichael: 8, on April 6.