The top U.S. late-night TV hosts are to reunite for a special Strike Force Five episode.
During The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday night, host Stephen was joined by "four of his best television friends" - Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver - in the studio.
To honour Stephen ahead of the upcoming final episode of The Late Show, the quintet announced that they will record an "emergency" instalment of the podcast. The episode will air on 13 May, with proceeds to be donated to World Central Kitchen.
Consisting of 12 episodes, the original Strike Force Five series ran from August to October 2023. It was created to support the hosts' employees, who were temporarily out of work amid the Writers Guild of America strike.
The comedians didn't offer any details about what they plan to discuss on the podcast, though Stephen kicked off a conversation about how he was often asked by executives to "make the case for late night".
"Look at the figures, and the fact of the matter is (that) more people are watching late-night television now. People have a lot of different options, and yet they still keep coming to us," replied Kimmel.
"Why should you have to defend late-night? Why should that question even be asked? Like Ryan Seacrest doesn't get asked (about) The Wheel of Fortune or whatever the hell he's hosting."
In response, Oliver quipped, "I would actually like to hear Ryan Seacrest defend Wheel of Fortune... 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."
For his part, Fallon argued that late-night TV is "just part of our lives".
"I never thought it was a job when I was growing up. I just thought Johnny Carson came with the television set. People wanna go to sleep, having a good laugh, and go to bed happy," he smiled.
Last July, executives at CBS announced that they would end The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and retire the Late Show franchise altogether this month.
Earlier on Monday, editors at LateNighter reported that Kimmel will air a re-run of Jimmy Kimmel Live! "out of deference to Colbert's send-off" on 21 May.
