Late-night TV is again, which suggests Strike Drive 5 is over—for now.
The ultimate episode of the star-studded podcast that united 5 of America’s greatest late-night TV hosts in a standard trigger throughout the five-month Writers Guild strike that had shuttered their reveals, arrived on Tuesday morning.
And whereas Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver spent greater than 12 hours podcasting as one, and bought, of their phrases, “thousand” of branded T-shirts and hats to lift cash for his or her out-of-work staffers, they managed to totally ignore the one story that should have been on their minds for a lot of the summer season: the damning revelations that Fallon had reportedly mistreated his Tonight Present employees for years. Though the opposite hosts did discover loads of alternatives to roast Fallon over the course of their 12 episodes collectively.
Within the finale, as with many episodes alongside the way in which, Fallon largely stayed on the sidelines of the dialog. They enlisted him to ship the opening (and shutting) advert reads for Pepsi, and when a dialogue discovered Meyers providing a “mea culpa” for misspeaking in an earlier episode and getting known as out on it by his Late Night time writers, Fallon’s contribution was to comment: “I don’t suppose any of my employees or writers have listened to this podcast.”
When Fallon talked about that his spouse identified that the hosts didn’t are likely to snort at one another’s jokes over the course of the podcast, Colbert rapidly reduce him down by quipping, “Jimmy, I promise you, I laughed at each one in every of your jokes I assumed was humorous.”
Making mild of their relative rustiness returning to their TV reveals final week, Colbert and Kimmel each copped to forgetting about a few of their each day duties reminiscent of Colbert’s common 11 a.m. assembly or the Slack channel Kimmel’s employees makes use of to run video clips previous him for approval. For his half, Meyers revealed “I talked too loud and too quick” in his first episode again. “I simply kinda forgot that I used to be correctly mic’ed, and I felt like I used to be simply screaming on the viewers.”
And Fallon? “I used to be making an attempt to not get emotional. The gang, as a result of everybody was clapping and stuff. I simply missed the whole lot throughout the strike.”
To which Kimmel retorted: “Oh, your crowd was clapping? Mine simply type of checked out me, like, oh yeah, there you might be.”
Simply as Fallon has declined to handle the allegations in opposition to him on the podcast, he has brushed previous them on The Tonight Present, solely briefly seeming to trace on the state of affairs in his first present again when he obtained visibly emotional about how “fortunate” he’s to have a present in any respect.
Whereas the opposite 4 late-night hosts maintained a vigorous chemistry evaluating notes on errors they’d made or sharing fascinating tales, Fallon appeared just like the odd man out, usually known as upon solely to supply one in every of his superstar impersonations, or used as a punchline each time he did chime in.
When the hosts spoke about their onscreen interactions with the late Regis Philbin, Fallon provided up his Regis impersonation, and used it to speak about how he noticed New Yorkers reacting to Philbin on metropolis sidewalks. Fallon claimed that’s how New Yorkers reacted to himself, too, this previous week.
The catch? Fallon needed to be standing beneath his personal signal exterior 30 Rock. Meyers tagged that by joking: “I noticed a few of your interns wrangling individuals. They have been going round, saying, ‘Hey, do you need to go say, ‘Hey Jimmy! to Jimmy?’”
Then Colbert barked at Fallon to impersonate Philbin assembly Carl Perkins—one other callback to Fallon’s failed Elvis impression—to which Fallon complied… just for the opposite hosts to make enjoyable of him some extra about what he imagined Philbin would say.
Reminiscing about their previous episodes, through which they rotated internet hosting duties, Oliver singled out the podcast’s fifth episode as “the toughest I’ve laughed this yr,” including, “These are laughs that I’m extremely grateful for. Full-bodied laughs.”
Within the now notorious Episode 5, “Strike Drive Wives!”, Fallon served as host and tried to whip up a recreation present asking the opposite hosts questions on every of their wives. Fallon, who is probably finest identified for taking part in video games with superstar company on TV, made the questions so convoluted that your entire premise rapidly went off the rails in spectacular vogue.
“I don’t suppose it’ll ever get previous,” Meyers added within the finale. “I believe we are able to at all times return to Episode 5.”
Fallon tried to reward the opposite episodes, singling out one with David Letterman, solely to be interrupted by Oliver: “Not all of it. Not all of it, Jimmy. Simply Episode 5. Actually, simply Episode 5. That’s a masterpiece.”
Colbert piled on: “I don’t know. I’d say purple onions in plastic luggage in your ft is price a point out,” referencing a second in Episode 7 through which Fallon mentioned his pal recommended onions in luggage on ft as a remedy for coughing. “It’s an honorable point out, at the least.”
In fact, if Fallon’s Tonight Present is understood for something moreover foolish video games it’s musical parodies, which have included rap tributes with Justin Timberlake and segments-turned-spinoff sequence reminiscent of Lip Sync Battle and That’s My Jam.
So maybe probably the most symbolic sidelining of Fallon in Strike Drive 5 got here close to the tip of the finale, when Kimmel shocked Meyers by having Seth’s brother, actor/comic Josh Meyers, write and carry out a musical tribute to Strike Drive 5, to the tune of Inexperienced Day’s “Good Riddance (Time Of Our Life).”
However wait, that’s my jam, Fallon would possibly’ve questioned. No, on Strike Drive 5, Fallon’s jam was studying the advert copy and royally screwing up video games to his co-hosts’ limitless delight.