With the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike now officially over, it’s time to say goodbye to the brief, joyful and surprisingly nihilistic podcast Strike Force Five. Initially proposed by the host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, America’s five biggest talk show hosts, namely Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver and Stephen Colbert came together to record and raise money for their striking writing staff.
148 days of striking later, a deal was finally made. Following concerns around streaming service payments and the development of AI, the agreement has been hailed largely a success. Whilst there are still more details to come from the deal, the WGA described the contract as “exceptional — with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership”. So, with the strike now over and the air jubilant, how should we reflect on a podcast that only existed because of threats posed to the entertainment industry?
The first thing to note about the Strike Force Five podcast is that it is completely odd. There’s something unnatural about five TV hosts trying to talk to each other – at each other – unsure of when to talk and when to listen. The first episode, aptly titled ‘Five Late Night Hosts Talk at the Same Time for the First Time’, captures the chaos that comes from a podcast where nobody is quite sure who is host and who is guest. “I think you’re really gonna feel [the writers’] absence while you listen,” Myers says. There’s little doubt he is correct.
The hosts, usually so confident in their late-night slots, appear lost without their writers to guide them. Their wildly unstructured conversations range from American classic Moby Dick to Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle (the latter may have been on a date with Colbert’s mother; the former is still to be read in full by Fallon). If nothing else, their meandering conversations resemble five dads catching up after a run-in at the local store. Sure, they happen to be some of the biggest names in American TV entertainment, but as you hear them discuss fishing, first dates and the pros and cons of eating in bed, all the grandeur of their professions quickly disappears. These are dads being dads in podcast form.
The best episode undoubtedly is the hilarious ‘Strike Force Wives,’ which sees Jimmy Fallon asking the wives of the hosts questions in an increasingly convoluted and nonsensical manner. Yoda-like comments are thrown around as the hosts, through tears, try to understand how to play Fallon’s game. It’s the sort of podcast that will make you cover your mouth in embarrassment as you chuckle walking down the street. “I need segment producers so bad and writers,” Fallon gasps through giggles, “I miss everybody so bad.”
Not all episodes, however, have the same breezy tone. Episode seven, with ex-Daily Show host John Stewart as guest, proves remarkably nihilistic. When asked how he’s coped following giving up the Daily Show, Stewart responds “it’s important to remember [that] when you leave what we do, you disappear.” Commenting on the ephemeral nature of satirical comedy, and the fact that viewers are unlikely to re-watch jokes made about the 2016 Iowa caucus, Stewart advises the hosts to get a hobby following their late show retirements. To put it more bleakly (as Stewart does): “Find God, I’m telling you, you’re worthless and insignificant.” It’s a fantastic commentary on the fickleness and fragility of fame.
Another ex-TV host Conan O’Brien made a similar claim in 2019. “In this culture?” he responds, when asked about his legacy, “[In] two years, it’s going to be, ‘Who’s Conan?’ . . . Eventually, all our graves go unattended”. “None of it matters” is his simple takeaway. Is this the fate all ex-talk show hosts face? Perhaps Stewart’s comments were provoked by the dreariness of the writers’ strike but it’s telling that podcasting, an industry which O’Brien also dominates, has proved a common thread in these nihilistic reflections.
Is being “reduced” to what could be considered a new-age radio part of the impetus behind the feeling that “none of it matters”? Just a few years ago, the idea of a talk show host doing a podcast was laughable but now podcasting is a multi-billion dollar industry whilst the viewership of late-night TV is swiftly dwindling. This is a strange, if still highly lucrative, time to be a talk show host and it must have been baffling for the five hosts to succumb to such a new (and potentially threatening medium) in Strike Force Five. This, if anything, makes the podcast all the more fascinating to listen to.
So, is Strike Force Five worth a listen? Absolutely. Go for the playful laughs, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and intriguing set-up. Stay for the gentle reminder that nothing (specifically, a TV legacy) really matters.
