NEW YORK — HBO’s ads promoting John Oliver on “Last Week Tonight” depict him cowering behind a desk, with the tag line, “Scary times call for a scared man.”

Be not afraid. Between Oliver’s return Sunday from a three-month hiatus and Donald Trump impersonator Alec Baldwin’s stint hosting “Saturday Night Live,” this is shaping up to be a big weekend in what has already been a promising start to the Trump era in late-night comedy.

Melissa McCarthy’s impersonation of White House press secretary Sean Spicer quickly went viral on social media last weekend. Seth Meyers and Trevor Noah are nightly newscasters of the absurd, Samantha Bee is continuing her biting work and Stephen Colbert’s opinionated topicality has rejuvenated his CBS show in competition with NBC’s Jimmy Fallon.

“We have to live in (Trump’s) world now,” said Steve Bodow, executive producer of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central. “We used to be able to observe him, but now we have to live in his world. He’s taken the country hostage, in a way.”

The mountain of material has been daunting. Bodow’s fellow executive producer, Jen Flanz, likens the pace to cramming for a different test every day. Bee seemed breathless recently telling viewers, “Believe me, we are not done,” and beseeching them to stick with her through a commercial break after comparing confusion surrounding Trump’s immigration order to the “healthcare.gov of Islamophobia.”