What to expect from Strike Force Five, the late night hosts’ new podcast : NPR
The late night heavyweights are putting their power in a new podcast, sharing this image on the show’s Instagram page.
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The late night heavyweights are putting their power in a new podcast, sharing this image on the show’s Instagram page.
The biggest names of the evening turned their private group chat into a Spotify podcast, strike force five. All proceeds will be used to support their staff during the writers’ strike.
Who are they?
- The show’s hosts were perhaps the most immediately affected by the strikes: Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon.
Late at night, unite! Your new favorite podcast, Strike Force Five, airs tomorrow and all of our proceeds will be donated to the staff and team affected by the ongoing writers’ strike. Check it out on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. pic.twitter.com/PQVgLEiftN
— Jimmy Fallon (@jimmyfallon) August 29, 2023
What is the problem ?
- We are about to enter the fifth month since the Writers Guild of America went on strike on May 2. Since then, all late-night shows have been discontinued and staff are out of work. Based on the first episode of strike force five podcast, all proceeds from the show will be used to support their staff during the strike.
- Members of SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ guild, have also been on strike since July. Under the strike agreement, union members are barred from promoting Hollywood productions of which they are a part – the bread and butter of many late-night shows.
- In the first episode, the hosts explain that when the strike was imminent, the five of them spoke to each other regularly on Zoom to find ways to support their staff. This show was the result.
Writers demonstrate on the picket line on the second day of the television and film writers’ strike outside Paramount studios in Los Angeles on May 3.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
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Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
Want to know more about pop culture? Listen consider this explore if we are currently witness the death of movie stars.
What are people saying?
- “I immediately thought it was a great idea,” said Bill Carter, author of two books on late-night television, The late shift And The Late Night War. “These guys are sidelined, like everyone else. And they get along pretty well, which is kind of atypical for the late night story.”
- During the 2007-2008 writers’ strike, David Letterman owned his own business, which allowed him to make his own deal with the union and return to the air. The other shows, with the guild’s blessing, returned before the strike ended and produced shows without their writers to help support the rest of the show’s staff.
- Carter notes that he is a dues-paying member of the Writers Guild of America. Some NPR staffers are also members of SAG-AFTRA, but operate under a different contract.
- The first episode of strike force five is doing well on the charts. As of this writing, it currently tops Apple Podcasts and is number two on the Spotify chart.
And now ?
- The series is scheduled for 12 episodes.
- If the former is any indication, we can safely assume that there will be more bits, jokes, and time war stories from the animators in the trenches of Hollywood.
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