The approximately 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike in early May.
LOS ANGELES:
An all-star lineup of late-night television hosts come together to talk about Hollywood’s ongoing labor disputes on a new podcast, a group effort to raise money for their standout writers.
Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver will join the podcast debuting Wednesday called “Strike Force Five,” according to a statement from streaming service Spotify. All five of them appear in each episode and take turns being presenters.
The roughly 11,500 Writers Guild of America (WGA) members went on strike in early May after failing to reach a new labor agreement with major Hollywood studios that produce movies and TV shows. The actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood’s largest union with 160,000 members, resigned in July.
Without teams of writers writing topical jokes, the late-night shows have been on repeat for nearly four months.
The five hosts have met weekly via Zoom “to discuss the complexities behind the ongoing Hollywood strikes,” Spotify said, and the new podcast will allow fans “to listen in on these once-private chats.”
Spotify said “Strike Force Five” will be available on most major podcast platforms and run for a minimum of 12 episodes. Kimmel said in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that the podcast would continue “for the rest of the strike.”
All proceeds go to the writers of the late-night shows, according to Spotify.
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