Watch out, Oprah Winfrey. Jean Olivier, host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, topped TV’s biggest gift giver on Sunday when he forgave nearly $ 15 million in medical debt for his show.

Oliver’s “gift” came at the end of a 20-minute segment on Debt Collectors. The segment focused on bad industry players, who buy debt from banks for pennies on the dollar. These predatory collectors attempt to collect the debt they have purchased using threats and other aggressive tactics without first verifying the exact details of the debt.

“Once the company has bought out your debt, whether the information is correct or not, it will try to collect it. ” Oliver explained on Sunday.

“Buying debt is a filthy business and sorely needs more supervision because as it is, any idiot can get into it. And I can prove it to you because I’m an idiot and we started a debt buyout company, ”Oliver said. “And it was surprisingly easy.”

Last week tonight spent about $ 50 to start a debt acquisition company in Mississippi. The name of the company is Central Asset Recovery Professionals Inc – also known as Carp. According to Oliver, shortly after its inception, Carp was offered a medical debt portfolio worth $ 14,922,261.76 at a cost of “less than half a cent on the dollar, or less than $ 60,000 “.

In terms of TV giveaways, the cost is far less than Oprah Winfrey’s most famous documentary. In 2004, she gifted the 276 members of her studio audience with a Pontiac G6 sedan. “You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! Everyone has a car! Winfrey told the public, at a cost almost $ 8 million.

But Oliver’s gift is likely to have a bigger impact on the lives of more people. After the transaction was completed, Carp received a list of names, addresses and Social Security numbers of nearly 9,000 people who owed the $ 15 million.

“We bought it, which is absolutely terrifying because it means that if I wanted to I could legally ask Carp to take over this list and the employees start calling people, life-changing their lives because of the medical debt, ”Oliver said.

Instead of collecting the debt, however, Last Week Tonight teamed up with RIP Medical Debt charity and decided to write off this debt.

“Thanks to this June 5 broadcast of the HBO comedy series Last Week Tonight show with John Oliver, many more of us are now aware of this debt collection and treadmill industry practice that ‘she creates,’ said Craig Antico, co-founder. of RIP medical debt. “In a painfully hilarious play (debt that funny? In a way, yes), John Oliver triumphed over Oprah by delivering valuable gifts.”

As Antico points out, this type of debt buying for charity was started by Rolling Jubilee, an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement. In 2013, Rolling Jubilee spent $ 400,000 to buy personal debt worth $ 14,734,569.87 – of which approximately $ 13.5 million was medical debt – before it was eliminated.

“No one should have to go into debt or go bankrupt because they get sick”, Laura Hanna, an organizer of the group, said at the time.

A year later, in September 2014, Rolling Jubilee announced that it had purchased another $ 3.8 million of student debt belonging to more than 2,700 Everest College students. The debt had cost the activists about $ 100,000.

“The Rolling Jubilee doesn’t really solve the problem. The Rolling Jubilee is a tactic and a valuable one because it exposes how debt works ”, Thomas Gokey, one of the organizers, noted. “It puts a dent in the morality of debt, through this idea that you owe X amount of dollars that the 1% says you owe. In reality, this debt is worth much less. The 1% sells for it at bargain prices. In fact, you don’t have to.

Rolling Jubilee, who hopes to inspire debtors to come together and exercise their collective power, raised over $ 700,000 and canceled a debt of $ 31,982,455.75.