Late Night Hosts Unite to Launch Podcast Benefiting Strike-Impacted Staff

Five Late-Night hosts have united to launch a podcast to raise funds for strike impacted workers.

Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver will roll out Spotify’s Strike Force Five, which currently has 12 episodes in the works. The Late-Night quintet announced Tuesday that it would release a limited Spotify podcast, aptly titled Strike Force Five. The arrangement is said to call for at least 12 episodes, which will begin rolling out Wednesday, Aug. 30. Each episode will have all five of its hosts participating in the conversation, though who’s leading it will rotate. The hosts will then give all proceeds to the out-of-work staff from their respective shows. The concept was born out of weekly Zooms that the late night hosts have been holding since the WGA strike began in early May. 

Long gone are the days of battling Late-Night hosts. As the dual strikes dragged on this summer, Oliver and Meyers performed a few sold-out nights of stand-up together. Oliver also appeared on Meyer’s other strike-time podcast, Family Trips With the Meyers Brothers, where Oliver shared stories of his family camping trips.

Strike Force Five will be supported by Ryan Reynolds’ Mint Mobile and Diageo (Aviation American Gin, Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, Casamigos and Ketel One Vodka), who will serve as co-presenting sponsors. The series will be hosted on Spotify’s Megaphone, with Spotify as the exclusive sales partner for the podcast.