Late night is wasting no time with its post-strike return
Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Fallon will all be back next week
Aux News Late Night
The end of the writers strike really is a groundbreaking event for our culture: among many other things, it convinced five men who really love talking to actually give up a podcast. Historic!
The esteemed members of the “Strike Force Five” pod—that is, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver—announced their retirement from the world of audio-only content today in an Instagram post lauding their own (tongue-in-cheek) contributions to the nearly five-month movement.
In addition to the real reveal of the post—that Conan O’Brien was supposed to do a guest spot that never materialized due to the pesky little inconvenience of the strike being over—the hosts also made another, slightly less important announcement. Now that writers are allowed to return to work, late night is coming back to television as soon as this Sunday.
As Variety predicted, (almost) all of the five hosts have set a return for the same day, presumably to maintain the sense of solidarity they fostered with the podcast. Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Late Night With Seth Meyers will all air their first episode in nearly five months on Monday, October 2. HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver will air the preceding night—October 1—in its usual Sunday timeslot.
After initially announcing (and then un-announcing) his return before the strike ended, Bill Maher will also be back on television this Friday, per a post on X. Premiere dates have not yet been set for other daytime talk shows like The Drew Barrymore Show, The Talk, The Jennifer Hudson Show, and others.
While actors are still on the picket lines, they will be able to appear on talk shows as long as they don’t promote any struck work, as these programs are covered under a different section of the contract (per The Hollywood Reporter). None of the hosts have announced guest line-ups as of yet, but it seems like at least one of them may owe Conan O’Brien for his missed podcast cameo.
27 Comments
This is all very relatable. When I told everyone I was ending my podcast they also said “you had a podcast?”
When I said that, the response was “How did you get in my house?”
Late night is wasting no time with its post-strike returnOf course they’re coming back ASAP. Why wouldn’t they?
announced their retirement from the world of audio-only content today
That’s too bad. I didn’t really expect the podcast to last beyond the strike, but it was a fun podcast to listen to.
Everyone clowning on Fallon for putting onions in his socks (as was the style at the time) was very fun to listen to.
all of the five hosts have set a return for the same day, presumably to
maintain the sense of solidarity they fostered with the podcast.I’d say it’s mostly competition, so sort of the opposite.If they let one come back first, it’d be a ratings boost for that show.
Which would mean that if they all agree to come back on the same day, with none of them thereby taking that ratings boost, that would be an act of… what’s that called?
Competition?Same thing would happen if it was Leno and Letterman, and it’d clearly be about not letting the other bastard win, not solidarity.
I guess I can see what you’re saying, but I think we’re looking at this from opposite angles:1) I’m not gonna let that guy get a ratings boost, so I’ll rush to open the same night they are = competition2) I don’t want to have an unfair advantage over this other guy, so I’ll not rush to open my show before them, so that it’s fair = solidarity
I assumed it’d take at least a couple days to get everybody back in place, book guests, and write a show, so since the strike ended Wednesday, then Monday was the earliest any of them could realistically get back on the air.So I have to admit I never even considered one of them could do a show Friday (certainly not Thursday), but I guess it’s possible.
Bummed we didn’t get a Conan episode but glad we’re getting Last Week Tonight back.
Im really curious about this: we have tickets to see John Oliver live this Saturday night, yet he’s supposed to have a new show Sunday night?
It will be interesting to see who they get as guests, given that the actors union is still on strike and actors take up something like 90% of late night show guest slots.
Colbert will undoubtedly have a politician of some kind on, and there are plenty of recognizable directors, musicians, athletes, or even reality stars that could probably guest.
*smirks in Last Week Tonight*
In retrospect, I wish that Matt Damon had started a podcast about the strike and, now that it’s ending, announced that he’s sorry but special guest Jimmy Kimmel had to be bumped for time.
They should do a bit where Damon comes on as the first guest, and then he immediately has two huge burly dudes carry Kimmel off set, and then Damon hosts the show.
‘burly dudes’?
Okay, fine, I’ll say it: Vogons.
Any news on SNL or is the actors’ strike preventing that from coming back?
They’re allegedly bringing it back with “non-actor” hosts, whatever that means. But it will be interesting, because I assume most if not all of the cast are part of SAG AFTRA
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/saturday-night-live-return-october-wga-strike-1235734497/
SNL is likely holding off announcing a specific start date until after the contract is ratified next week. If I had to guess, October 14th is the most likely return date. I believe SNL is categorized as a variety show, and operates under the “Network TV Code”, and is not impacted by the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Aren’t these guys SAG members, and therefore crossing a picket line?
No. A lot of TV outside of the prime-time scripted arena are covered by a separate contract, the “Network TV Code.” Soaps, variety shows, talk shows, game shows, reality/competition shows, award shows and the like are not affected by the SAG-AFTRA strike. SAG members who do interviews on talk shows would still be prohibited from promoting struck companies and products, however.
It’s like how Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog got away with it. If you just produce it yourself, the rules for the studios don’t apply.
Thank goodness for all the ‘middle-aged white guy’ representation in late night television these days. I sure was tired of all those Samantha Bees and Trevor Noahs balancing the scales ever so slightly. Good riddance, different perspectives!
The podcast was actually hilarious and while I’m thrilled they’re all coming back, I’m suuupeer disappointed we aren’t getting the Conan episode and also that we won’t hear Colbert’s story of getting the job 🙁