Colbert Welcomes 4 of His 'Best Television Friends'

Late night's most famous quintet just reunited on one stage, and they're not done teaming up. On Monday, Stephen Colbert welcomed "four of my best television friends"—Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver—to CBS' The Late Show, reviving the "Strike Force Five" team that emerged during 2023's Hollywood strikes, per The Hollywood Reporter. Between group hugs and jokes about Colbert's budget and Jon Stewart as the "designated survivor," the hosts dug into a bigger question: why late-night TV should still exist.

Colbert said he'd been pushed by his host network to justify the format's survival. Kimmel countered that viewership is simply shifting to places like YouTube, not disappearing. Fallon framed late night as a kind of cultural background music—"part of our lives"—while the group also riffed on President Trump, Melania Trump's reported efforts to get Kimmel fired, and even a noted game-show host. "Why should you have to defend late night? Like Ryan Seacrest doesn't get asked [about] the Wheel of Fortune or whatever the hell he's hosting," Kimmel said to Colbert.

"I would actually like to hear Ryan Seacrest defend Wheel of Fortune," Oliver added. "Like someone that's next to me saying, 'Defend Wheel of Fortune's right to exist,' and I am gonna be leaning forward waiting for what he says." The group, which USA Today notes also lamented about the end of Colbert's program, closed with a light game and a special announcement: They'll be dropping a special "emergency" episode of their Strike Force Five podcast, which originally had a 12-episode run, on Wednesday to honor The Late Show's series finale on May 21, with proceeds from the podcast going to World Central Kitchen.