Stephen Colbert and his guests Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver made a “case for late night” on Colbert’s Late Show in a get-together to honor the departing CBS talk series before its final sign-off on May 21. (“Jon Stewart,” Colbert quipped, “is the designated survivor tonight – someone has to survive […]Stephen Colbert and his guests Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver made a “case for late night” on Colbert’s Late Show in a get-together to honor the departing CBS talk series before its final sign-off on May 21. (“Jon Stewart,” Colbert quipped, “is the designated survivor tonight – someone has to survive
Stephen Colbert and his guests Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver made a “case for late night” on Colbert’s Late Show in a get-together to honor the departing CBS talk series before its final sign-off on May 21. (“Jon Stewart,” Colbert quipped, “is the designated survivor tonight – someone has to survive for the president to be mad at.”)
“Wouldn’t it be great if Jon had to do all of our eulogies,” Colbert joked, with Kimmel, who was seated on the Late Show couch furthest from the host, responding, “I hope I don’t get stuck on last place in that one, too.”
The reunion for the self-named “Strike Force Five” included plenty of well-wishes and good-natured jibes (“I figured out why you lost $40 million Stephen,” said Kimmel. “There’s too many in your band.”) Meyers, holding an iPad loaded with sound-effects (a thunder clap for every mention of “Strike Force Five”) was, said Oliver, like a kid “with a tambourine” as Meyers made use of the sad Debbie Downer trumpet sound.)
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Kimmel explained the Strike Force Five moniker – it stemmed from when the hosts went on strike with the WGA and did a podcast together during the pause. The group also convened to record a special “emergency episode” of the podcast last night.
Colbert then wondered whether his show’s cancelation would mean relinquishing his spot on Strike Force Five along with its (made-up) special health insurance. “You’re out,” said Meyers. “It’s Strike Force Four. It breaks our heart but it’s like gerrymandering – nobody likes it but once the courts rule…”
Said Kimmel, “Don’t worry, give me a few months and it’ll be Strike Force Three.”
With the future of late-night talk shows in jeopardy, Colbert asked his guests to “make a case” for the genre.
“I would say look at the figures,” Kimmel began. “The fact of the matter is more people are watching late-night television now than when – and I know everybody gets crazy – but that when Johnny Carson…Obviously Johnny Carson had a lot of people watching one show but we have a lot of shows with 30,000 people watching each one and it adds up. And people watch us on YouTube now and people have a lot of different options and yet they still keep coming to us.
“I will tell you when I got knocked off the air for a few days, people canceled Disney+.” Turning to the audience and the camera, Kimmel continued, “Why aren’t you people canceling Paramount+? Because you didn’t have it in the first place?”
Oliver, whose show is on HBO, jokingly stood up for his potential new bosses. “Jimmy, until the deal goest through, if I could just do a counter to that, Paramount+ might have some good programming. Unless it doesn’t go through, in which case it can go f*ck itself.”
“I never thought it was a job when I was growing up,” Fallon said of hosting. “I just thought Johnny Carson came with the television set. People want to go to sleep having a good laugh, go to bed happy. They wake back up for Seth’s show and then they go to sleep.”
Asked by Colbert whether any of the hosts could ever have imagined having a job “that the president of the United States would have strong feelings about,” Kimmel jumped in once again. “You know what’s even weirder, we’re doing a job that his wife has strong feelings about it”
“Most of us have avoided that part,” said Meyers, with Fallon adding, “That’s why you’re at the end of the couch.”
Watch the entire segment above.
