Bill Maher Learns The Limits Of Language On His New CNN Outlet

HBO

A glimpse of stocking was once deemed shocking. But today, heaven knows…there are still limits on what you can say on certain broadcast outlets.

Bill Maher found that out the hard way.

Maher recently joined CNN with the segment Overtime, which uses the guests from his HBO show Real Time in an extended conversation.

The host was speaking with Kristen Soltis Anderson about Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The topic was “nepo babies,” the children of famous parents who got a leg up thanks to that association.

Maher expressed outrage that there was a perceived advantage. He said acting was not “f***ing hard,” before laughing and apologizing to CNN.

“Sorry, CNN. I know. I forgot. You’re not supposed to – Not on HBO.”

Despite CNN and HBO being part of the same company, there are different broadcast standards. You can say the “F-word” on HBO, a pay cable network. But it has to be censored on CNN, an ad-supported basic cable network that has to comply to much stricter content regulations.

Maher has some practice — more than two decades ago, he hosted Politically Incorrect on a broadcast network, ABC.