Stephen Colbert brought the band back together on Monday night (May 11), welcoming fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, and Seth Meyers to The Late Show for a reunion ahead of the show’s May 21 series finale.
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The gathering marked a significant moment for the group, who previously united in 2023 during the writers’ strike to launch a limited-run podcast called Strike Force Five, which raised money for their out-of-work staffs. In a similar spirit, the five hosts announced a new video episode dropping Wednesday, May 13, which will again benefit nonprofit World Central Kitchen, which provides meals for humanitarian, climate, and community crises globally.
The conversation touched on the impending end of The Late Show, the future of late-night television, and the current political climate.
When Colbert asked the group whether they’d ever imagined having a job that the president of the United States would have strong feelings about, Kimmel interjected: “You know what’s even weirder? We’re doing a job that his wife has strong feelings about.” Meyers deadpanned: “Most of us have avoided that part.”
Colbert also put to the group a question he said he’d fielded repeatedly in recent months — whether they could make the case for late-night television to continue to exist. Kimmel pushed back on the premise entirely: “Why should you have to defend late night? Ryan Seacrest doesn’t get asked that question about Wheel of Fortune or whatever the hell he’s hosting.” Oliver added that he was “gonna be leaning forward” waiting for Seacrest’s answer.
The show closed with a round of “How Well Do You Know Your Fellow Late-Night Hosts?”, featuring questions written by Late Show writers. Colbert claimed the title of most-likely-to-have-made-out-with-the-most-guests, name-dropping Helen Mirren, Sally Field, and Andrew Garfield among others. Fallon admitted to receiving “full tongue” from Martin Short during an SNL skit — “more than I’ve ever made out with anyone in high school.”
Colbert noted that all four of his guests had been hosting their respective shows longer than he had been at The Late Show, and that they would all continue after his departure. “You’re like the candy shell, I’m the nougat filling — and then somebody came along and just sucked it out,” he said. Kimmel offered a characteristically blunt eulogy: “It’s like when your young wife dies. It’s such a tragedy. It is ‘gone too soon.’”
CBS announced last July that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert would end after its current season in what the network described as “a purely financial” decision. The series finale airs May 21 on CBS at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT.
