- Five hosts of the most popular late-night talk shows have started a podcast.
- The money generated by the podcast will be used to support staffers who work on late-night talk shows.
- The podcast is hosted on Spotify Megaphone and sales are facilitated by Spotify itself.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strike has been going on for 121 days with no signs of an end.
The two unions which represent a large portion of the writers, actors, and others in the entertainment industry in the US are protesting low pay, the potential use of AI by studios, and more.
Given the length of the strike, many of those people are likely starting to feel the pinch given they haven’t been paid for up to three months. To that end, we think fresh information of new podcast is worth shouting about.
No, we’re not talking about the revamped podcasts presented by Hypertext launching next week, but a podcast presented by some late-night talk show hosts.
Strike Force Five was born from a weekly Zoom call between Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver discussing the strikes. The podcast is hosted on Spotify’s Megaphone platform and sales will be facilitated by Spotify.
These sales will be used to support staffers on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
The podcast is supported by sponsors Mint Mobile and Diageo which sort of puts Ryan Reynolds in the mix given he’s a Mint Mobile owner and Diageo produces his Aviation American Gin.
Strike Force Five pushed its first episode out on Wednesday and the hour-long podcast is easy enough to listen to if you’ve missed the dulcet tones of the various late-night host’s voices. The content is, as you might expect, centred around the ongoing strikes.
This strike is now the longest yet and still shows no sign of abating from either the studios or the writers and actors. Things will get interesting in the next few months when the existing stream of content has run out and studios start to feel the pressure.
It’s good to see those with a massive following collaborating to help the folks on the picket lines. While it may not be a replacement for the programming, we’re thankful that at least the hosts have started a reality TV show.
