The Daily Show And The Colbert Report Return All On Their Own

The Daily Show proved that its wit did not walk out the door with its writers and exhibited that the striking writers would not be exempt from its stinging social commentary. One of the images next to Stewart's head under Writer's Guild of America strike signs said "Space Reserved For Clever Pun." Stewart also exhibited biting commentary on the strike itself, saying "The last time these late night shows were off for an extended period of time it was after September 11th and lasted for about a week. By the math, that means that the writer's strike is nine times worse than September 11th." Stewart helped to put the strike into perspective from the views of many by pointing out that the issues being negotiated over ranged from minimum wage to residuals for writers who already make thousands upon thousands of dollars plying their trade.

The show further revolved around the strike by having Ron Seeber, Labor Relations professor from Cornell University, on as its guest. The Daily Show is always at its best when using comedy as the hook to grab the viewers' attention and then mixing humor and knowledge to educate its viewership about current events. Seeber and Stewart covered how the management had essentially invited this problem (they talked up profits from Internet downloads that writers were not getting a piece of to their shareholders at a shareholder meeting). Stewart also bemoaned the fact that the SGA has refused to allow his & Colbert's writers to return even though Stewart's production company, Busboy Productions, has agreed to the writers' terms and asked them to return. Seeber's answer was that the SGA is likely choosing a few strategically placed shows to allow the writers to return to so that economic pressure will mount and eventually cause their opponents to cave in to their demands or at least to be the ones to invite a return to the bargaining table. The Moment of Zen that the show always ends with was, fittingly, footage of the WGA strikers marching in front of the Daily Show's studios silently.

Jon Stewart was not as crisp without his writing staff when compared with Stephen Colbert, however that is likely attributable to Colbert's background in improv comedy (he was with the Chicago improv comedy troupe Second City for many years). Colbert started out with his signature telling of what would be on the show by saying "Tonight, _______," "then _______," and "finally ______," ending with "This is the Colbert Report!" pronouncing it Colbert (the 'bert' pronounced like Bert of Bert & Ernie) and pronouncing Report with the hard 't' that it usually has.

As Colbert took the stage he was greeted with rapturous applause and chants of "Stephen! Stephen!" and he had to move to physically sit down his guests before he could continue. He went to a bit about his prompter being empty that was good and then apologized for things being "FUBAR" around there. Further driving home the point of the writers' strike, he went to The Word and did a hilarious bit where he gestured with his hands trying to conjure it up but it never appeared.

He brought on Andrew Sullivan to talk about Barack Obama, likely because Obama could not come himself since crossing a picket line is a no-no for a Democratic politician, and had a lively pro-Obama discussion with Sullivan playing his straight man. He then moved on to his main guest which was Richard Freeman, author of the book America Works. Freeman next played straight man to Colbert in a pro-union interview where Freeman declared unions are good and that 50% of Americans want unions.

On the whole, both shows did well without their writers. However, Colbert's did better. It will be interesting to see if the shows can continue to churn out laughs of the type and frequency the shows' viewers have come to expect. More interesting will be to see how long they have to last and if the SGA will give permission to the shows' writers to return or if the strike finally ends sooner rather than later. In the long term, though, expect Colbert to be the strongest of the two because of his many years of improv comedy; he can likely do the equivalent of a one-man act for half his show and interview guests for the other half indefinitely at an entertainment level that is acceptable to his audience.

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	Stewart, Colbert Return to the Air	Associated Press	Mon Jan 7	0
	Stewart, Colbert return Monday with challenges; Satirizing news will be harder with both hosts barred by WGA from writing	msnbc.com	Sun Jan 6	1
	Colbert, Stewart make do without writers	Associated Press	Wed Jan 9	0