MY BAD

Late-Night Host Lets Slip One of Colbert’s Final Surprises

Stephen Colbert is apparently plotting an Avengers-level reunion.

Stephen Colbert will unite late-night during his last run on The Late Show.

Colbert, 61, will host a reunion of Strike Force Five—the coalition of five late-night hosts including Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Fallon—before his show concludes on May 21, according to LateNighter.

The group will reportedly appear on the Monday, May 11 episode.

The Daily Beast has reached out to CBS Entertainment for confirmation.

Meyers, 52, reportedly spilled the beans about the reunion during a Q&A with his Late Night audience on Wednesday, five sources from the audience confirmed to LateNighter.

The five hosts created the 12-episode limited-run podcast Strike Force Five during the 2023 writer strikes, which took their late-night shows off the air for five months. The show began as private, weekly Zoom calls between the hosts, which then became a podcast at Kimmel’s suggestion.

The show became adored by listeners for its off-the-cuff tone, as the hosts’ informal discussions often devolved into improv comedy chaos due to the lack of production supervision—a choice intended to highlight late-night’s reliance on its then-striking staff.

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The Spotify podcast quickly topped the podcasting charts for its star-studded lineup. All proceeds from the podcast went directly back to the late-night hosts’ out-of-work staff.

While the May 11 appearance will mark the first time all five Strike Force Five hosts have appeared together onstage representing the podcast, Colbert’s four co-hosts did make one appearance on his show in July.

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In a show of support for Colbert, who had just been told by CBS that his show would end after its current season, the four hosts joined in for a sketch parodying the infamous Colplay concert fiasco.

Because all five hosts will be at The Late Show‘s Ed Sullivan Theater to record with Colbert, the CBS show will be the only network late-night show to air a new episode on Monday. Meyers and Fallon have already canceled their May 11 tapings, and Kimmel will not tape a new episode either, though he will already be in New York for ABC’s upfronts, previewing the network’s new TV shows.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will conclude its acclaimed 11-season run on May 21. Colbert has packed his final run of shows with high-profile guests, including former President Barack Obama, Meryl Streep, and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The late-night host also admitted that he had sent a letter requesting that Pope Leo XIV join as his final guest.

“The pope is my white whale,” Colbert admitted to The Hollywood Reporter. “I said, ‘Your Holiness, I hope this letter finds you well or, at the very least, infallible. Would you please come on my show?’”

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Owen Mason-HillEditorial intern, Obsessed

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