First on LateNighter: In what may be the closest thing late-night TV has ever had to an Avengers-style crossover episode, Stephen Colbert is set to welcome not one, but four other late-night hosts to The Late Show in a reunion of the Strike Force Five.
Though CBS has yet to confirm the booking, multiple sources tell LateNighter that Seth Meyers let slip during an audience Q&A Wednesday that he, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver are set to jointly appear with Colbert on his show Monday, May 11.
It will mark the first time all five hosts have appeared together on a single late-night stage.
The group famously first teamed up on Strike Force Five, a 12-episode podcast launched during the 2023 writers strike, which halted production across the industry—including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and Colbert’s Late Show.
What began as a private weekly Zoom check-in between the five hosts evolved into a loose, often chaotic podcast—one designed both to raise money for out-of-work staffers and to underline just how much those shows rely on them.
It worked. The podcast shot to the top of the charts on both Spotify and Apple Podcasts, with its improvised, lightly structured format becoming part of the point: five hosts, left to their own devices, fumbling their way through bits, games, and conversations without their usual behind-the-scenes support system.
But perhaps more than anything, Strike Force Five became a showcase for something late night hasn’t always been known for: genuine camaraderie.
For decades, the genre famously ran on rivalry. By contrast, this current generation has made a habit of showing up for one another—in real life, in individual guest appearances on each others’ shows, and now, in what promises to be their most ambitious group appearance yet.
As a byproduct of the five hosts taking the stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater together on the same night, The Late Show will be the only network late-night show airing a new episode Monday night. Both Meyers and Fallon have cancelled their usual tapings—both will air new episodes the rest of the week, while Kimmel—whose show tapes in Los Angeles—is dark all week and was already expected in New York for ABC’s upfronts.
With Colbert now in his final stretch at CBS—The Late Show airs its final episode on May 21—it’s hard not to read the moment as more than just a reunion—part victory lap, part farewell, and a reminder of what this particular era of late night has looked like at its best.
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