The TV Zone

America's anchors are back.

From the Dept. of No Surprise, now this: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, along with respective Comedy Central shows, will return to the air with original episodes on January 7. That pretty much makes the entire late night landscape back in business early next year.

In a statement, here's what Colbert/Stewart had to say, "if we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence." Funny line, but a little glib too, considering that they are coming back solo (in all likelihood), and leaving their striking colleagues down on the sidewalk below.

And CC: "We continue to hold out hope for a swift resolution to the current stalemate that will enable the shows to be complete again."

Of course, everyone continues to hold out hope for something that looks increasingly hopeless. Stewart/Colbert - like the other late night hosts - will be left naked (so to speak) before the camera. No one can technically "write" - meaning no monologues for Dave/Jay - but Stewart has an even more daunting challenge: Prepping for a writerless/jokeless/maybe actor-less Oscar night.

Why "no surprise?" Simply because everyone else returned, and it was a matter of minutes before these two came back as well.