Jon's back! Stephen's back!

"The Daily Show" - Jon Stewart is pretty clearly hewing closer to the Leno position of scripting his own lines than the Conan line of going as unscipted as possible. It was a little shambling - I think we're getting a taste of what Stewart's sense of humor would be if he did stand-up. A couple good lines - "The writers' strike is now nine times worse than Sept. 11" was the best of the bunch, or at least the most Daily Show of the bunch.

Getting a labor relations guy for the guest was a sharp move - and one only the Daily Show would pull. I didn't learn anything new from the interview, but I follow this stuff for a living. Your mileage may vary.

It's interesting to see Stewart's obvious frustration with the Guild as well as the producers.

"The Colbert Report" - I had higher expectations for Stephen than I did for Jon, because more of the show seems ad-libbed anyway.

And it is pretty funny. Stephen goes all out for his character. The punch lines aren't really there, but the character is still pretty funny ("I have always been anti-labor, I have always been anti-union.") The Word was great.