Well now, this is interesting. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, the two late night talk show hosts arguably the most reliant on writers–including their most important WGA-affiliated staffers, themselves–returned to the air tonight, in order to get their crews paid again, and in order to make the most of a crazy political season. But as two vocal leftists (or whatever the "real" Colbert is), returning to TV is in some ways a no-win situation for them. On the one hand, they have to come back, because they don't have the financial resources to keep paying their non-writing staffs through the strike the way Letterman or Leno could; and meanwhile, so much juicy stuff is going on in the world, and both of them are quick-witted enough to comment on them fairly extemporaneously.
But is that allowable under WGA guidelines? Right now Jay Leno's in trouble for writing his own monologue. If Jon Stewart's staff picks clips for him to comment on, and Jon pre-rehearses some comments–as he clearly did tonight–does that count as "writing?" And will that work against his image as a labor-supporting, writer-supporting populist?
No wonder Stewart looked so squirmy tonight. And so cranky to boot. During this episode's interview–a sexy two-segment chat with a Cornell labor relations professor–Stewart dropped the not-widely-reported news that he'd convinced Viacom to let him sign an individual deal with the WGA, just like David Letterman's Worldwide Pants. But the WGA turned him down. Here's a guy who wants to get his writers back to work, with the deal the WGA wants–and that they've already approved for other production companies–but for reasons related to some arcane union strategy, he can't get anything going. The world is clearly askew for our Jon.
Still, this was an entertaining if incomplete installment of The Daily Show, with no field reports and not enough material about the presidential campaigns, but some inherent drama in watching the host struggle with his frustration, confusion and hurt–all of which spilled over in the second half of the interview segment, to amusing effect. It's hard to say what The Daily Show will be like the rest of the week, but now that Stewart has made his case for going back on the air, and proved again that he has the chops to make jokes without a script, the episodes to come should be a smoother ride.