All Five Major Late Night Hosts Are Teaming Up For A Podcast Called "Strike Force Five" And Giving All The Money They Make To Their Striking Writers

Source - The titans of late night are teaming up to talk shop on a new podcast -- all in an effort to support their striking employees -- and at least one union is totally cool with that plan ... on certain conditions.

A rep for SAG-AFTRA tells TMZ ... the just-launched "Strike Force Five" show -- featuring Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and John Oliver -- is all good in their book ... assuming they stay within guidelines set forth by strike regulators.

This is how a SAG spokesperson put it ... "As long as the podcast does not promote struck work, it appears to be in adherence with the SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical/Streaming strike rules. Given that it falls within the strike rules, it is fine for them to produce this podcast during the strike."

In other words, it sounds like the hosts have their blessing to proceed ... but they should probably steer clear of certain topics if they wanna stay in the actors union's good graces. 

Yeesh. I don't know much about the writers strike, but I sure as hell know this ain't the answer. In fact, it may make things worse. These hosts may realize that going off the cuff is...wait for it...funnier than the stuff that gets concocted in an Ivy educated network writer's room. This is all they have posted on social...

So yeah, technically the verdict is still out but we'll see. I also don't love that Stephen Colbert is recording in what appears to be a child's bedroom? That and the fact that the show airing in the first place. It just seems so bizarre that this group of guys is doing what essentially comes down charity work for their already well-paid staff. A staff that is notoriously winey and even more notoriously pretentious about their craft...

The podcast is a good thing, big picture -- any money earned is being donated directly to the late-night hosts' own writers … who, of course, haven't been working since May.

"Strike Force Five" is currently slated for 12 episodes, which will be hosted on Spotify. They haven't really said what they're going to talk about … but ya gotta figure the ongoing strikes will be topic #1. The podcast launched Wednesday, and there's more to come.

Then again, what do I care? If these guys want to do a cutesie little internet podcast while their network television shows are on strike then more power to them. Anyway that's all I have for this one. Thanks for reading and make sure to check out the latest Out & About here.

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