Late-night shows announce return now that writers’ strike has ended

By Dan Heching, CNN

(CNN) — It’s the end of an era, so to speak, now that the writers’ strike in Hollywood has reached its end.

The men of late-night television – Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and Seth Meyers – all announced via social media on Wednesday that they are gearing up to return to the air on their respective shows early next week.

The joint announcement came as a comic book superhero-inspired bulletin featuring the logo of Strike Force Five, the quintet’s recent podcast that had been launched while the hosts’ shows – “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” – were dark due to the writers’ strike.

The message read, in part, that “the founding members of Strike Force 5 will return to their network television shows this Monday 10/2, and one of them (Oliver) to premium cable on 10/1.”

Later, the message continued, “This is the Strike Force 5 signing off and the Late Night 5 signing back on…What was the password to my work computer again?”

Separately, Bill Maher announced his show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” will return this Friday. Maher had previously attempted to resume production on his show during the strike, but later walked back that decision after some backlash.

The writers’ strike began on May 2 of this year and lasted until Tuesday night, after a deal was brokered between the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

Lasting 148 days, the strike was one of the longest in the WGA’s history. The current record was set in 1988 when the guild’s members struck for 154 days.

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CNN’s Samantha Delouya contributed to this report.