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.

Craig Ferguson returned this week with the Late Late Show and boy did he put his writers back to work with gusto. His boss David Letterman, who owns the Late Late Show's production company, negotiated the deal to return the writers both to his own show and Ferguson's show with the blessing of the Writers Guild of America.

Ferguson has leaned heavily on his writers since coming back, but less so with each passing episode. A good example is that while he had no guests on his first show back January 2, 2008, he was up to two guests the following night and three guests on Friday night. Ferguson has a gift for comedic timing and character play which he utilized most his first night back when he had no guests. The second night there was less of this with his guests Mike Huckabee and Jason Randal. The first two nights were less memorable than Friday night, however.

Friday night had a good ESPN skit with jokes about steroids, incorporating guest Dominic Monaghan. His monologue, as always, was worthwhile. Ferguson continually alluded to the writers' strike, going back to the well several times with a crack that the best writers were still out on the picket line. Letterman's production company definitely got its money's worth out of Ferguson's writing staff.

The guests, except for Huckabee, were forgettable. Huckabee brought his retail politics, folksy sense of humor and quick wit to the Late Late Show and made magic combining with Ferguson's own sense of humor and schtick. The other guests were ho-hum forgettable. Particularly forgettable were Monaghan and Leonard Nimoy.

The Late Late Show is back and those like me who appreciate Ferguson's monologue and occasional skit will be pleased to have it back and it is surely light years ahead of its competition on other channels by virtue of both its host and the fact that it has professional writers and the other shows do not. I can only wish the shows without regular writers luck because they shall certainly need it.