Kimmel, Meyers, Fallon, Oliver and Colbert: Why it matters that TV's late night hosts gathered to mourn the demise of 'The Late Show'

Seeing Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver and Jimmy Fallon on Stephen Colbert's Late Show Monday might not have seemed unusual. But for those who know late night TV history, it was monumental.

It may not have seemed that unusual for fans of the current late night TV scene to see what Stephen Colbert cooked up Monday night: An evening featuring four other hosts from major late night shows on competing networks, gathered to pay tribute to his soon-departing program.

Modern fans know these five guys – Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel – have a long history of loving on each other in public. When the actors and writers’ strikes crippled Hollywood, they gathered together for a podcast called Strike Force Five, using the proceeds to help pay their writing staffs during a time when all their shows were off the air.

Here’s a new episode of Strike Force Five that they recorded as a video podcast this week, as well:

During Colbert’s show Monday, they joked about meeting for his birthday in a New York City restaurant – British tourists recognized Kimmel and Fallon, but not their own countryman, Oliver. Both Fallon and Kimmel – the hosts who directly compete against Colbert in similar timeslots -- have agreed to “go dark” for the final Late Show episode May 21, airing reruns on that day to help ensure he gets maximum ratings.

(To be honest, the world is going to be showing up for Colbert’s last episode anyway – why should Kimmel or Fallon spend time and effort hosting an episode many people won’t see in real time, anyway?)

I talked about the significance of their appearance this morning on NPR, noting how Colbert seemed to downplay any talk abnout anger over his show’s cancellation, even as Kimmel joked that he really wanted to see “Angry Stephen” jump up and trash everybody eventually.

But for fans who have a little longer relationship with the genre, watching the five hosts from network TV and cable’s most significant late night shows on one stage, saying nice things about each other as they offer a televised wake for The Late Show’s cancellation, was a remarkable sight.

That’s because old school stars from the genre were known for their viciously competitive actions, from refusing to book guests who had appeared on rivals’ shows to scathing monologues taking shots at other hosts, encouraging their audiences to savor the conflict.

The habit stretches all the way back to the King of Late Night TV, Johnny Carson, who was known for being tough to know and harshly competitive at a time when his Tonight Show was far and away the marquee platform in the genre.

With a show that helped make the careers of comics like Drew Carey, Roseanne Barr, Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby, Carson’s Tonight Show played hardball with guests when upstart hosts like Joan Rivers tried to lead competing programs (Carson famously refused to speak to Rivers, who had once been his main guest host, after she agreed to host a late night talk program which would compete against The Tonight Show.)

When Carson retired, NBC chose Jay Leno to take over the Tonight Show instead of David Letterman, whose Late Night program aired after Tonight and was considered creatively groundbreaking. Letterman felt snubbed and hoodwinked by Leno, who he had helped early in his standup career by featuring him often on Late Night, sniping at his former friend well after his move to CBS where he established the first version of The Late Show.

Carson, who supported Letterman and reportedly preferred him as a successor, even hosted Letterman on The Tonight Show before he retired and asked a simple question: “How pissed off are you?”

The bad blood continued in late night, when NBC attempted to hand the Tonight Show over to Conan O’Brien, even though Leno was still generating top ratings. Amid NBC’s efforts to hold onto both hosts – including giving Leno an ill-fated, terribly-conceived primetime show at 10 p.m. – the network eventually handed the Tonight Show back to Leno in a messy public episode that led Letterman and Kimmel to take public shots over how O’Brien was treated.

Today’s late night hosts are all old enough to remember those bad old days, and they seem to have all decided to develop a very different dynamic among each other.

It helps that there is so much competition that trying to play games by exerting exclusivity over guests doesn’t make much sense. Carson at his height drew more than 30 percent of the available audience, more than 17 million viewers each night; these days, Kimmel, Colbert and Fallon drew a combined 6.5 million viewers in the first quarter of 2026.

(As Kimmel pointed out Monday, such figures don’t include the primary way many viewers, especially younger ones, watch their programs: Online, via YouTube and streaming services like Peacock, Hulu and HBO Max. He said their shows likely draw more viewers combined than Carson did alone, which seems entirely possible.)

These hosts also have deeper personal connections. Colbert was a correspondent on Jon Stewart-led Daily Show before getting his own spinoff series – the two even hosted a Rally to Restore Sanity together in Washington DC many years ago, and remain friends (can’t wait to see how Stewart will pop up in Colbert’s final run of shows). Oliver is another Daily Show satirist made good, part of a pantheon which includes names like Steve Carell, Samantha Bee and Roy Wood Jr.

Fallon and Meyers both came up through Saturday Night Live and share an executive producer in SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels. And Kimmel is also known for his friendly connections to figures throughout Hollywood, which helps explain why he can gently roast Hollywood in places like ABC’s Upfront presentation today or while hosting the Oscars and only boost his positive profile in the industry.

To be honest, much as I enjoy each of these hosts individually, their appearances together have always felt a little flat. They’re all so careful about making space for each other and keeping up the camaraderie, that you really don’t get five times the comedy when they are all onstage – though there were bright spots when Kimmel joked Monday that CBS’ cancellation of The Late Show didn’t bring a wave of fans dropping the streaming service Paramount+ in protest, because they probably didn’t have it to begin with.

With a new episode of their Strike Force Five podcast dropping Wednesday, it’s obvious that these five hosts have realized they have more power – and fun – standing together rather than competing alone.

And I’m left with a final hope for a forlorn late night TV fan who still bristles at CBS’ decision – rooted in finances, they say, and not in silencing a prominent critic of President Trump -- to cancel the Late Show and end a 30-year-plus franchise without even trying to cut its budget or find a compromise.

Since Kimmel has guest hosts fill in for him in the summer anyway, how cool would it be to have Colbert transition from a grand final for the Late Show in May, right into a week hosting CBS’ biggest late night rival, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, in June?

Sure, Colbert is probably too classy a guy to go out that way. But a fan can hope.