The five major late-night show hosts are banding together to financially help out their currently unemployed staffers who have been on strike since the onset of the writers’ strike in May.
Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers are Voltron-ing together for the Spotify limited podcast “Strike Force Five.” The idea for the program, which premieres this week, came after the group decided to meet every week as the writers’ strike got underway and realized that their conversations seemed compelling and entertaining.
The series is scheduled to have a 12-episode run, with each member of the cohort participating in every episode. The host of each episode rotates among the comedians. Although the main topic of the show is the Hollywood strikes, the TV funnymen will also delve into other topics.
“All proceeds received by the hosts from ‘Strike Force Five’ will go to out-of-work staff from the hosts’ respective shows, ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,’ ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,’ ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live,’ ‘Late Night With Seth Meyers,’ and ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,’” Spotify said in a statement. Some of the hosts had previously pledged to give their staffs some pay during the strike.