Late night TV is back! How Fallon, Kimmel, Colbert handle a post-WGA strike world

Stephen, Seth, Jimmy and Jimmy are all back to work.

Five months to the day after the Writers Guild of America went on strike, the late night TV shows are back on the air after a deal was reached between the WGA and the major Hollywood studios. That means the monologues, the viral games and the suits are back. But hosts Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel will be hurting for guests to cackle with: Hollywood actors are still walking the picket lines as the SAG-AFTRA strike goes on (although talks between the actors and studios have finally began Monday).

So what does late night look like in a post-strike, post-COVID, post-Trump indictments, post-craziness world? A lot of love for the WGA, jokes at former President Trump's expense and five months of news jam-packed into tightly-scripted monologues. The writers were certainly working hard as soon as they got back on the job.

Some hosts were triumphant; for others, it was business as usual. But no matter how good the jokes were (and some were certainly better than others), they were all desperately happy to be back in front of an audience.

Stephen Colbert pokes fun at his writers while welcoming them back after the strike

Colbert was positively giddy when he walked onstage at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. “Now the writers strike is over, with a new contract that includes protections," he said as the crowd cheered. "Plus, thanks to the picket lines, my writers got fresh air and sunshine, and they do not care for that. Now they’re back safely in their joke holes, doing what they do best, making my prompter word screen full of good and haha."

The "Late Show" host slid back into his groove easily, finding a way to work in jokes about his wife and Trump's indictments in the first few minutes of his show. Colbert balanced his monologue the best of all his fellow hosts when it came to the serious and the silly. It was all crowned in an exuberant moment in which the host called Senator Bob Menendez's corruption scandal a "pyramid scheme." No fuss, no awkwardness, just business as usual with a pro-writer undertone.

Jimmy Fallon: 'My dad called me up and said, finally, I can watch Kimmel again.'

I'm so excited to be back," the "Tonight Show" host said, at his most giggly and smiley. "Everyone is excited; my dad called me up and said, 'Finally, I can watch Kimmel again.'  I'm so happy the writers got the fair deals that they deserve; you've got to hand it to them, the only writers who spent all summer fighting to go back to the office. ... it took five months to reach the deal. The stalemate finally ended when the studios realized, 'We gotta end this now, or it's another three months of watching 'Suits.'"

Casual and clipped, Fallon spent the least time talking about the strike itself and moved on quickly to quips about NBC turning his studio into a Spirit Halloween store. He's not exactly the host to meet a culture defining moment, but he is the host to talk about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, which he did at length.

Jimmy Kimmel: 'We've been gone so long the Bachelor is now a grandfather'

"In case you can't remember, I'm Jimmy," the other late night Jimmy, Kimmel, said when he opened his show after Monday Night Football on ABC. "We've been gone so long the Bachelor is now a grandfather." He also expressed thanks to his crew and the other unions that supported the writers. "This is a big win for the little guy. This is a big win for the chubby guy and the hairy dude and the weird girl who doesn't make eye contact and for the two potheads in the 'Star Wars' T-shirts that are too small for their bodies and the guy who is too old to have a ponytail and the lady whose two cats each have their own Instagram page. We call them writers, and they are all back to work."

Of course, as soon as he was done talking about the strike, Kimmel went back to his usual routine of lambasting Trump, and he had a lot of material after five months. Was it too much Trump? Maybe not, if you take a year's worth of Trump jokes and average them.

Seth Meyers speaks from the heart about the strike, thanks WGA and NBC

Meyers, who dedicated nearly his entire hourlong show to his newsy "Closer Look" segment, put on his softer, gentler side when discussing the strike, cheering the wins for the writers but finding a place to thank everyone. The host has long excelled at emotional speeches, and he shined as he spoke.

"I never take this show for granted, but being away from it so long makes it really hit home," he said. "I'd like to thank the WGA leadership for all the time they put into this, all the personal time, negotiating a fair deal. ... I've been working at NBC for 22 years now, I have a great relationship with 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."

But Meyers had room for jokes, too. "I'm so happy to be back in a room with my writers. I miss my writers so much. I was so happy to see them this morning. I will admit by lunch I was a little over it."

John Oliver slams studios in 'furious' return after the strike

After a rapid-fire recap of the news he missed while his show was off the air due to the strike, Oliver returned Sunday on HBO with a strong statement in support of the writers, saving a venomous retort for the Hollywood studios. “So the Writers Guild went on strike and thankfully won, but it took a lot of sacrifices from a lot of people to achieve that. And while I’m happy that they eventually got a fair deal and immensely proud of what our union accomplished, I’m also furious that it took the studios 148 days to achieve a deal that they could have offered on Day 1. But hopefully, this might encourage others, from auto workers to Starbucks baristas to health care providers, whether they are in unions or would like to be, to find power in each other. And within our particular industry.”

He was angry and he always wears his anger well.

Contributing: Bryan Alexander, Gary Levin