After the Writers Guild of America officially announced the end of its 148-day writers strike, Strike Force Five members Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, and John Oliver have confirmed the official broadcast return of their respective late night shows through a joint statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The first late night show set to return will be Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, which will air a new episode this Sunday, October 1 on HBO. As for NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers, they will be coming back to broadcast on Monday, October 2. Meanwhile, CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live are also slated for an October 2 return.
Strike Force Five Podcast to End
The five co-hosts of the Strike Force Five also revealed that their podcast will be ending once all of their 12 episodes have been released. Their statement hilariously included an apology to fellow late night show host Conan O’Brien, revealing that he was originally supposed to join them, but Colbert forgot to inform him about the schedule.
You can read their full statement below:
“Flash! Their mission complete, the founding members of Strike Force 5 will return to their network television shows this Monday 10/2, and one of them to Premium Cable on 10/1, Of course, in a greater sense, the Strike Force 5 is not a people, Strike Force 5 is barely a podcast…Nay, Strike Force 5 is an idea. An idea that five men could talk on top of each other for 12 episodes, and maybe somebody would listen. As we say goodbye, we would like to thank all those somebodies. Truly, you were the heroes. We were mostly the heroes, but you were in there, too.
We want to thank the entire Strike Force 5 team. Our wives, our special guests, and apologize to Conan O’Brien, who agreed to do the pod. But, Stephen forgot to send him any possible dates, and then the strike ended.
Goodbye for now, and hello for later. Because we still have a few more episodes, unless Ryan Reynolds cuts off the cash. This is the Strike Force 5 signing off and the late night 5 signing back on…
What was the password to my work computer again? Babysomoza? – Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver. P.S. Boom.”
After all of their shows went off air by the end of April, late night show hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, and John Oliver had banded together to start their very own podcast. Proceeds from the podcast were given to their employees, who had been out of work during the duration of the WGA strike.
After it went live on August 30, the podcast ranked number one on both Apple and Spotify. Currently, the first eight episodes are now available on major podcast channels.
