John Oliver Makes TV History After Buying $15 Million Of Your Medical Debt

Sorry, Oprah.

American households currently owe more than $12 trillion in debt, which has given rise to an entire debt-buying industry. The largest debt-buying entity, Encore Capital Group, claims that 1 in 5 consumers owes, or has owed, them money.

"That means, statistically," John Oliver said in a recent clip from "Last Week Tonight," "one member of Evanescence owes, or has owed, Encore money."

But Oliver didn't want to just shine a light on this issue; he wanted to do something about it.

So he formed his own debt collection group, the Central Asset Recovery Professionals Inc., or CARP. Oliver then purchased about $15 million in medical debt and forgave all of it on national television, thereby taking the title for largest giveaway in TV history.

Sorry, Oprah.

Correction: We previously stated that the amount of medical debt that Oliver forgave was about $16 million, but the figure was actually around $15 million.

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