Jimmy Kimmel Tests Positive For COVID, Cancels ‘Strike Force Three’ Live Taping With Jimmy Fallon And Stephen Colbert

By Alex Vena
Published Sep. 21, 2023, 10:38 a.m. ET

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Jimmy Kimmel

One member of the Strike Force Five has been struck down by COVID-19.

Jimmy Kimmel announced yesterday (Sept. 20) that he has tested positive for COVID, which means that the scheduled live taping of “Strike Force Three” featuring three out of five of the Strike Force Five podcast’s co-hosts — himself, plus fellow late night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert — has been canceled.

The live recording was set to take place this Saturday, Sept. 23 at 8 p.m. at the Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas. According to Entertainment Weekly, this event would have been the first time that the three late night hosts performed together onstage.

Kimmel took to X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) to break the news to fans.

“Well, Las Vegas, I got Covid, and sadly, we need to cancel this weekend’s Strike Force Three show,” Kimmel began his post.

Kimmel, who grew up in Vegas from the age of nine, wrote that he “could never live with [him]self if [he] got [his] hometown friends sick.”

He continued, “Thanks to all who purchased tickets, everyone will get full refunds and we will try to reschedule if possible.”

Since its debut on Aug. 30, the Strike Force Five podcast (which is the joint effort of Kimmel, Fallon, Colbert, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver) has released six episodes, all of which are raising money to benefit their out-of-work writers during the ongoing WGA strike.

It turns out COVID caused the cancelation of another Vegas show this weekend. Steve Martin and Martin Short‘s show You Won’t Believe What They Look Like Today!, which was slated for performances tomorrow and Saturday at the Wynn hotel, was canceled due to “rampant Covid in [their] crew and one other essential guy,” per The Hollywood Reporter.

“We are sorry for any inconvenience, but we are moving to mid-December, where your tickets will be honored with an added ‘date-moving tax,’ of nine thousand dollars,” Martin quipped on X.

Strike Force Five is available to listen to on Spotify and all major podcast platforms.