Not being much of a TV watcher, and having no cable access, I must admit that the writer’s strike hasn’t really affected me. Still, I had to see what John Stewart and Steven Colbert had to say about the ordeal of them crossing the picket lines and returning to the air waves, sans writing staff. Seeing as I have no cable, I of course checked out the comedy central web site. This simple action cuts right down to what the strike is about. I watched their content, Comedy Central made their money by advertising a credit card, a new movie and a new [adult swim] video game , and the writers believe (justly, in my opinion) that they deserve a cut for their work on the content that I watched. As of 10:40 AM PST, the first clip from Jon Stewart’s temporarily retitled A Daily Show has accrued 64,496 views (and is currently growing at roughly 100 hits a minute).

Meanwhile, Daily Show writer (and Chico expat) Jason Ross’s YouTube video, which tells their side of the story (in a very Daily Show manner) has garnered over 500,000 hits. Check it out. Make Google some money.

Also, get a load of Letterman’s hippy beard. He’s growing it in support of the striking writers (while his own company has struck an independent deal with the Writers Guild of America).

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert announced, though reluctantly, that they will return to work on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report Jan. 7th, with our without their writers. This announcement comes on the tail of Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel saying that they would go back to work in January.

The writer’s strike has had a big affect on many television programs, but the hardest hit were the late-night talk shows that rely on scripts daily. Stewart and Colbert have been in reruns since the strike began in early November. Though they aren’t happy about their decision, America’s favorite fake news anchors still managed to find the humor in the situation, saying in a statement, “We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence.”

David Letterman also hopes to return to work in January; however, he and his World Wide Pants production company have been holding separate talks with writers in hopes of getting them back for their return to regular programming.