'Strike Force Five' Cancels Live Show After Jimmy Kimmel Tests Positive For COVID, Completely Bailing Out Jimmy Fallon From Confronting Toxic Workplace Report

A Las Vegas stage show spinoff of the “Strike Force Five” podcast featuring Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel has been canceled after the lattermost tested positive for COVID. Add COVID to the list of distractions from Fallon’s Rolling Stone exposé after Hasan Minhaj’s lying scandal and Russell Brand’s everything.

The live show, which was supposed to take place on Saturday, September 23, was titled the “Strike Force Three” as it would have been absent two members of the late-night supergroup, John Oliver and Seth Meyers, instead of lacking the full five now that Kimmel reportedly caught the bug. Everyone who bought tickets to the show will be refunded the full price, and Colbert, Kimmel and Fallon will attempt to reschedule the event.

Kimmel announced the cancellation on Twitter, writing to his fellow Las Vegans, “I could never live with myself if I got my hometown friends sick.” I can’t imagine how passive aggressive that tweet would have been if the show was in Fallon’s native Bay Ridge.

After a report compiled from the accounts of 16 current and former Tonight Show staffers alleged a culture of fear and abuse at the Fallon-hosted show, Fallon arranged an all-hands Zoom meeting with his employees, telling them that he never intended to “create that type of atmosphere for the show” described by Rolling Stone, telling them, “Sorry if I embarrassed you and your family and friends… I feel so bad I can’t even tell you.”

The report, which alleged that the workplace culture created by Fallon led to employees renaming one dressing room the “crying room” and caused multiple staffers to contemplate suicide, has not yet been addressed on “Strike Force Five,” nor have any of the late-night stars addressed the allegations against their colleague publicly. Presumably, the “Strike Force Three” show wasn’t exactly going to feature a Q&A session with suicidal Tonight Show assistants – but, as the comedy news cycle continues to spin with even darker stories overshadowing Fallon’s alleged transgressions, it seems less and less likely that the Rolling Stone report will ever result in the titans of the late-night industry reckoning with the workplace culture that allowed conditions to get so bad for so many Tonight Show employees.

But, hey, at least Las Vegas was spared an appearance from Jimmy Kimmel. There's always a silver lining.