Strike Force Five
4.3/5
Critic Rating
Late night talk show hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver are teaming up for a new podcast to support their striking writers and out of work staffs. Strike Force Five! welcomes you to a conversation between five rival colleagues for an inside look at late night television.
Critic Reviews
Score: 5
Eliana Dockterman • Time • Nov 22, 2023
"...these funny men found their groove in their attempts to one-up one another with anecdotes about interviewing manic celebs and tease each other...this particular group charms with their willingness to humiliate themselves..."
Score: 5
Sarah Larson • New Yorker • Sep 29, 2023
"...intriguing and short-lived podcast...It was novel to hear these five guys together, vocally supporting the strike while being mutually warm and respectful and busting one another’s chops...demonstrates the importance of the strike and the potential that the podcast had to communicate it. "
Score: 4
Sean Malin • Vulture • Sep 21, 2023
"...as a work of entertainment, Strike Force Five is more uneven....the podcast has alternated between a rollicking, rambunctious meeting of some of the world’s quickest comic minds...Colbert himself has rarely sounded so freely chatty. If anyone can be said to be just present enough, it is Meyers, whose speed is astounding. This break in politesse, brief as it is, offers the clearest look so far of the latent tension undergirding this entire enterprise."
Score: 4.5
Fiona McCann • Irish Times • Sep 16, 2023
"Truth is, they’re less talkative than you’d think. In contrast to what you might expect from five alphas in the room – lots of taking the lead, little of following – these five are incredibly respectful and uninterrupty, though perhaps that’s all down to the editing. But something about hearing them all together makes achingly clear why diversifying the late-night circuit might be long overdue."
Score: 4
Miranda Sawyer • The Guardian • Sep 9, 2023
"SFF is nice enough. John Oliver is the sharpest. ...what this show gives you is an audio lesson in the importance of two things: confidence and scripting. These are amenable, funny men – not whip-quick, but amusing, in a dad way – who sell themselves well, simply because they’re confident. But without a script, or proper production, such confidence descends too often into unfocused waffle."
Score: 5
Alexi Duggins • The Guardian • Sep 7, 2023
"There’s a lo-fi charm to this freeform show...their chats are full of intriguing insights into their friendship."
Score: 5
PR Staff • PodcastReview.org • Sep 6, 2023
"They tell stories and have coded conversations where they try not to reveal whatever celebrity they’re talking about. It’s probably the most famous people who have ever hosted a podcast together, and features ad reads mostly for celebrity liquors."
Score: 4
Stephen O. • Podcast Delivery • Sep 4, 2023
"They also go on to plug their other podcasts not before comparing their honorary doctorates. For real. Good thing cringe is in these days. While this might be the most recent example of peak podcasting, it’s not all self indulgence and ego-stroking. Proceeds made through Strike Force Five’s advertising deals will go to support the hosts’ out-of-work staffs. For what it’s worth, we like it when the podcast leads to a late-night talkshow not the other way around. The Bodega Boys are our kings of late-night."
Score: 3.5
Fiona Sturges • Financial Times • Sep 3, 2023
"In short, Strike Force Five is a nice thing made with the best of intentions, so it is a shame to report that the first episode is a bit of a mess. That’s not to say the opening episode doesn’t have its moments. For a podcast featuring five of the highest-paid comedians on TV, the gag rate is remarkably low."
Score: 3.5
Brianna Wellen • Prime Timer • Aug 31, 2023
"It’s all very noble. The content of the show itself, however, is a telling representation of the late night landscape. There’s barely any room for the hosts to breathe, let alone a listener to process if the jokes being said are actually funny or not. Meyers and Oliver take a more subtle approach than the Jimmys and Stephen, sitting back and waiting for their moment to jump in instead of attempting to talk over everyone else. They provide a respite and a reflection of where their respective shows sit in the landscapeStrike Force Five is commendable for providing financial support to those less fortunate, but it’s also a reminder of who is still coming out on top in the industry."
Score: 2.5
Oliver Bateman • UnHerd • Aug 31, 2023
"Strike Force Five might serve a philanthropic purpose with its proceeds supporting the striking writers. However, it fails to transcend its flaws or offer anything revolutionary. The collective narrative underlines a more significant problem: the redundancy and monotony of late-night TV comedy, as well as the cultural uniformity of its leading lights…"
Score: 5
Adrian Horton • The Guardian • Aug 30, 2023
"Suffice to say, the hosts are all on the same page this time, that page being, among other things, that they miss their staffs and their work....There were some professional bonding tidbits...It was overall loose and informal (“has it been an hour already?” Colbert asks at the end), heavily inflected by references to their past careers in comedy and quick to dispel any illusions of a rift between the hosts. As far as rambling podcasts go, at least this one goes to a good cause: feeling, as Meyers said, the indispensability of their staffs."
