Stephen Colbert's final weeks at The Late Show will feature a full reunion of late night's most powerful voices. The host brings back Strike Force Five, the informal collective of Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, and Seth Meyers, for a special appearance on Monday.
The group initially bonded during the 2023 Hollywood strikes, when they launched a podcast together as the industry ground to a halt. That collaboration became a cultural moment, showcasing the camaraderie between competitors who dominate the late-night landscape. Now they're reuniting for Colbert's exit, cementing what feels like the end of an era.
Colbert's departure from The Late Show ends a nine-year run that began in 2015, following his successful pivot from Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. His tenure has shaped late-night television through political satire, celebrity interviews, and musical performances. The network clearly wants to honor that legacy with high-wattage talent.
The Strike Force Five reunion carries real weight in late-night circles. Fallon dominates NBC's Tonight Show, Kimmel anchors ABC's late-night slate, Oliver runs HBO's Last Week Tonight, Meyers handles NBC's Late Night, and Colbert held down CBS's flagship hour. Together, they represent the entire ecosystem of scripted late-night television. Their willingness to appear on each other's shows remains rare enough to register as news.
This send-off also reflects how the late-night world has contracted post-strike. The 2023 labor actions restructured Hollywood's power dynamics. Late-night hosts emerged as unlikely symbols of the writers' fight for fair contracts. The Strike Force Five became shorthand for the generation steering the genre through transformation.
Colbert's replacement remains unannounced, leaving the Monday appearance as a symbolic passing of the torch within