HBO RENEWS "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER" FOR ITS 14TH AND 15TH SEASONS

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 8, 2015 - With the show set to kick off its 13th season tomorrow night, HBO has renewed REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER for a 14th and 15th season of 35 editions each, scheduled for 2016 and 2017, it was announced today by Michael Lombardo, president, HBO programming.

"HBO has provided Bill Maher with an uncensored forum since the late '80s," noted Lombardo. "This extension of our successful partnership guarantees that Bill will continue to offer his fearless insights through the next presidential election season, when his irreverent wit is sure to be needed more than ever."

"Luckily for me, American politicians never give it a rest, so every season is an election season," says Maher.

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER returns for its 13th season FRIDAY, JAN. 9 (10:00-11:00 p.m. live ET/tape-delayed PT). Allowing him to offer his unique perspective on contemporary issues, the show includes an opening monologue, roundtable discussions with panelists, and interviews with guests. Comedian Chris Hardwick is the top-of-show interview guest on tomorrow night's show. Comedian Jay Leno is the mid-show interview guest. The roundtable guests are political commentator Paul Begala, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and author Salman Rushdie.

Politico has hailed Maher as "a pugnacious debater and a healthy corrective to the claptrap of cable news," while Variety noted, "There may not be a more eclectic guest list on all of television."

In an unprecedented move, Maher visited Washington, D.C. for two live hour-long shows, presented back-to-back without a break last September, hosting a new edition of REAL TIME, followed by the stand-up special "Bill Maher: Live from D.C."

Maher headlined his first special on the network in 1989 and has starred in ten solo specials to date, including the hour-long presentations "Bill Maher... But I'm Not Wrong," "The Decider" and "I'm Swiss" (both nominated for an Emmy(R) in the Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special category), "Victory Begins at Home," "Be More Cynical," "The Golden Goose Special" and "Stuff That Struck Me Funny," and two half-hour stand-up specials, plus the specials "30 Seconds Over Washington" and "Comic Relief VI(TM)." Maher is also an executive producer of the innovative news magazine show "VICE," which concluded its second season on HBO in 2014 and returns this year.

Maher was the creator and host of "Politically Incorrect," which was produced by HBO Downtown Productions and debuted on Comedy Central in 1993. The series moved to ABC in 1997 and ran through 2002. He also produced and starred in the 2008 feature film "Religulous," the seventh most successful documentary of all time.

The executive producers of REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER are Bill Maher, Scott Carter, Sheila Griffiths, Marc Gurvitz, Brad Grey, Billy Martin and Dean E. Johnsen; produced by Matt Wood; director, Paul Casey.