A five-month hiatus spell had been cast over all mechanics of Hollywood where due to the WGA and SAG AFTRA strikes, the writers and actors were out picketing their rights. Recently after WGA’s strike ended with a great deal of strides on their part, and while the SAG AFTRA still continues to battle out their rights with the AMPTP, the Late Night Shows happened to make a comeback on Monday, sending the fans worldwide in a frenzy.
The shows that made a comeback on Monday were the respected hosts of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” who were all expected to bust out a monologue on their spectacular return after an elongated break. Beginning with Jimmy Kimmel from the show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” the host addressed a few lines on opening night(via Variety).
“In case you’ve forgotten my name is Jimmy. I have been off the air for five months. We’ve been gone so long, ‘The Bachelor’ is now a grandfather.
Continuing his monologue, “We missed so much good stuff. Donald Trump got arrested four times while we were on strike: Once for the classified documents, once for interfering with the election, once for January 6th, and once for shooting Tupac. Allegedly. You know what the weirdest thing about being off the air is? When I walk into a room, nobody claps. I walk into Costco. I get nothing.” Adding to the humor, he continued, “I just want to take a moment to thank our crew – and all the union crews – for supporting our writers. IATSE, the teamsters union – all refused to cross our picket lines – and we owe them for that. Thanks largely to them, it was a big win for the little guy… and a big win for the chubby guy… and the hairy dude, and for the weird girl who doesn’t make eye contact, and for the two potheads in Star Wars t-shirts that are too small for their bodies. And the guy who’s too old to have a ponytail, and the lady whose cats each have their own Instagram page. We call them writers and they are all back to work. And we hope that the actors – and the autoworkers – and the health care workers – all get the contracts they deserve too.”
Following this hilarious interlude, we have Jimmy Fallon, who hosts “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” said, “Five months off and we are back,” He continued his monologue, “I am so excited to be here. I am more excited than a guy seeing ‘Beetlejuice’ with Lauren Boebert. More excited than a Jets fan during the first three plays of the season. Even my dad called and said he’s so excited to watch Kimmel.” In lieu of the effect of the writer’s strike, he elucidated, “Glad the writers got the fair deal that they deserve. You’ve got to hand it to them: Only writers would spend all summer trying to get back to the office.” His show began with his patent theme song, The Roots yelled, “Wait…we’re back?”
The Tonight Show is finally back. Take a peek behind the curtain of our return to Studio 6B and tune in TONIGHT at 11:35/10:35c on @NBC! #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/QiFaW42FpP
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) October 3, 2023
Coming to “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” its host Colbert started with his 2nd October monologue by saying, “It feels good to be back,” continuing, “It feels good to be with all of you again here in the Ed Sullivan Theatre. Because after the first few months of the strike, [Colbert’s wife] Evie refused to keep chanting my name. But now the writers’ strike is over, with a new contract that includes protections from A.I., cost of living increases, and better pay for streaming. Plus, thanks to the picket lines, my writers got fresh air and sunshine — and they do not care for that. Not they’re back safely in their joke holes, doing what they do best: Making my prompter word screen full of good and ha-ha! “It’s been a long time since our last ‘Late Show.’ We looked at the calendar today, and check my math on this, I believe we have been off the air for 154 indictments,” he additionally quipped. “It was a crazy summer to be off. Packed with events. Obviously, it would be stupid to recap everything that happened over the last five months. So here we go.”
TONIGHT: @StephenAtHome is back with a brand new LATE SHOW. What'd we miss?#Colbert pic.twitter.com/CTnvwU40hk
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) October 3, 2023
But the longest and most touching monologue was spoken by Seth Meyers, the host of “Late Nights with Seth Meyers.” saying, ” “I wanted to take a moment to say how grateful I am to be back here with you tonight. I never take this show for granted, but being away from it for as long as I was away from it really hits home how much I love having this as a workplace. I would like to thank some people: I would like to thank the WGA negotiating committee, and the guild leadership for all the time they put in. All the personal time they sacrificed to be in the room and negotiate for the very fair deal that all the writers deserved. I have friends on the negotiating committee, friends like Mike Schur, and friends like Kay Cannon. Not just talented writers, but people who sacrificed their time to work for all writers. And I would call them a lot during it, and I’m sure a lot of their friends called them during the negotiations and said things to them like, ‘Sooooooo….? Any news?’ So I apologize to them for that but thank you for everything you did.
In tonight’s show, @sethmeyers reflects on the last five months when #LNSM was not in production. pic.twitter.com/rYTztW4w8C
— Late Night with Seth Meyers (@LateNightSeth) October 3, 2023
“I am so happy to be back in a room with my writers. I missed my writers so much. I was so happy to see them this morning. I will admit by lunch I was a little over it. They’re really talented, they just have a ton of opinions… I’d also like to thank my fellow late-night hosts. It was great to have them. We talked a lot during the strike. Being on the same page with them made a hard period much easier to deal with. Thanks to Jimmy Kimmel, who suggested we do a podcast called ‘Strike Force Five.’
“I’ve been working at NBC for 22 years now, I have a great relationship with the people who run this place. And even though we were on opposite sides during this strike, I want to thank them. They made some compassionate choices about the people who work at this show and at this network, and it did not go unnoticed. I’d like to thank my family, I know it was not easy to have me around for five months. I’ll never forget the day this summer when my 7-year-old came up to me and said, ‘Not only do I not care what Rudy Giuliani did today, I’m not going to care what he does tomorrow.’ And while I hear that, I do feel like he’s missing out.
“I’d like to thank the audience here, the audience at home… And I’d like to thank our crew, the people who work on the show who are not the writing staff, for their patience while we worked through this very necessary labor stoppage to get the gains that the Writers Guild fought so hard for. I am so happy to be back with our crew. We are more than just a group of people who work together here. To quote Vin Diesel in the ‘Fast 5’ movies, ‘Look out!’ What I’m getting at is this is a family.”
With the swan song of the WGA strikes and the successful return of the Late Night group, we once again return to have late-hour viewings with our favorite hosts who were deeply missed over these five long months.