Viewers Await Return of Stewart, Colbert

By FRAZIER MOORE – 4 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Fans of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
awaited their return to the air Monday night with eagerness enhanced by
curiosity: How would these funnymen deliver topical satire while
stripped of their writers?That, of course, is the challenge
facing “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report,”
which have been out of production since the writers strike began nine
weeks ago, and are now resuming with their writers still off the job.

While
both Comedy Cental late-night series have always largely been scripted,
that would now violate strike rules of the Writers Guild of America.
Even Stewart and Colbert, as guild members, are apparently barred from
writing anything.

But helping fill each half-hour, as usual, will be interview segments.

Monday,
the scheduled “Daily Show” guest was Ronald Seeber, a Cornell
University professor and expert on conflict resolution. The announced
guests on “Colbert” were New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and The
Atlantic magazine’s Andrew Sullivan. GOP presidential hopeful Mike
Huckabee was expected to appear on “Colbert” Wednesday.

Waiting
in line to see Monday’s taping of “The Daily Show,” New Jersey teacher
Scott Gamble called himself “a huge fan of Jon Stewart’s. He generally
has the best election coverage on the air.”

Meanwhile, Michael
Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America East, was among
about 15 picketers gathered outside the Manhattan studio of “The Daily
Show.”

Winship said the union’s complaint wasn’t with Stewart or
Colbert, but “that Viacom and Comedy Central will not yet make a fair
and responsible contract” allowing the hosts “to get back their
writers.”

Also picketing, Adam Brooks — who wrote and
directed the upcoming feature “Definitely, Maybe” — said: “We’re
trying to send a message that ‘The Daily Show’ and ‘Stephen Colbert’
are better shows with writers than without writers.”

Even though
barred from writing for his own show, Colbert was returning to the air
a leading author: His humor book, “I Am America (And So Can You!)”
currently holds the No. 1 slot on The New York Times best-selling
nonfiction list.

The strike, which hinges on Internet revenue among other issues, began Nov. 5.

___

Associated Press writer Clare Trapasso contributed to this report.

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