Strike Force Five assemble!
Monday night’s episode of The Late Show saw the late-night Voltron come together once more with host Stephen Colbert joined by The Tonight Show‘s Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!‘s Jimmy Kimmel, Late Night‘s Seth Meyers and Last Week Tonight‘s John Oliver.
Introducing “four of his best television friends,” Colbert welcomed his late-night rivals/peers/friends/contemporaries/well-wishers with a group hug. The quintet recalled the last time they all spent time together, for Colbert’s birthday two years ago. Colbert remarked that the five of them together was “dangerous” and that it meant The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart was now the “designated survivor.”
As the hosts bantered — Kimmel quipped that he understood why Colbert’s show lost “$40 million dollars” as there’s “too many people in the band” — they settled into an interesting existential discussion about late night.
“Late night is a bit of weird spot,” said Colbert remarking that while he was going through his struggles with CBS over the Late Show, he was constantly asked to “make a case for late night” to continue existing. Opening the discussion, he asked his peers to “make the case for late night.”
“Look at the figures, and the fact of the matter is more people are watching late night television now,” Kimmel said noting that people watch in different ways now not just broadcast, including YouTube. “People have a lot of different options, and yet they still keep coming to us.”
Kimmel added, “When I got knocked off the air for a few days, people canceled Disney+.” He then pointed at Colbert’s audience and jokingly asked: “Why aren’t you people canceling Paramount+? Because you didn’t have it in the first place?”
Feigning concern, potentially future Paramount employee Oliver interjected, “Jimmy, until the [Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery] deal goes through, if I could just do a counter: Paramount+ might have some good programming… Unless it’s not going through, in which case it can go fuck itself now and forever.”
“Why should you have to defend late night? Why should that question even be asked?,” Kimmel asked Colbert. “Like Ryan Seacrest doesn’t get asked [about] The Wheel of Fortune or whatever the hell he’s hosting.”
Oliver replied, “I would actually like to hear Ryan Seaquest defend Wheel of Fortune… Like someone that’s next to me saying ‘defend Wheel of Fortune‘s right to exist’ and I am gonna be leaning forward waiting for what he says.”
“Late night is one of those things that’s been around our whole lives where it kind of it’s just part of our lives,” said Fallon. “I never thought it was a job when I was growing up. I just thought Johnny Carson came with the television set. People wanna go to sleep, having a good laugh and go to bed happy.”
Colbert then asked, “Did you guys, when you were younger, especially when you’re starting out in comedy, did it ever occur to you that you’d be doing a job that the president of the United States would have strong feelings about?”
“You know what’s even weirder, we’re doing a job that his wife has strong feelings about it,” quipped Kimmel referring to Melania Trump’s recent attempts to get him fired.
“Most of us have avoided that part,” joked Meyers.
The interview ended with a game, with the five hosts revealing who is most likely to not watch a movie of a guest, most likely to make out with a guest, most likely to cry, and who had the highest rating on Wikifeet. For reference, Colbert had the best feet and he dropped sock and revealed toe.
Also on the Late Show, the comedy quintet revealed that they will reunite for a special emergency episode of Strike Force Five in honor of the series finale of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Proceeds will benefit World Central Kitchen, the nonprofit that provides meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises around the world.
The Strike Force Five podcast came into existence during the duel Hollywood strikes in 2023. The five late night comedians came together for the limited 12-episode run pod on Spotify to raise money for their respective out-of-work staffs. The podast, which featured candid conversations between the five, was a huge success.
The all-new video episode of Strike Force Five will be available on May 13, on Spotify, and on the podcast’s YouTube channel, and anywhere podcasts are found.
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