NIGHT AT THE IMPROV Stewart, Colbert (Photos: Getty Images)

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert returned to television last night, reminding us that we never really cared about Leno and Letterman in the first place. Though The Daily Show and The Colbert Report admitted semi-defeat without writers early on, the respective hosts handled themselves with aplomb and gave us a good reason to hang onto our overpriced cable subscription.

Stewart sported a uni-brow, likening it to other late night hosts' statements of "hirsute solidarity" and expressing his hope that the symbol would become the "writers' strike equivalent of the AIDS ribbon." He then quickly renamed the show, saying The Daily Show was a show with a creative team of field producers, writers, and correspondents. Until the end of the strike, Stewart has christened his show A Daily Show.

Even without his jokesters, Jonny boy was entertaining enough with a chatty opening monologue that dared to poke fun at both sides of the strike. Stewart, obviously torn up by the strike, wore his heart on his tiny sleeve as he discussed labor politics with the show's only guest, Ron Seeber, a professor of labor relations at Cornell. Duder wasn't exactly the show's most exciting guest ever (still, far better than Robin Williams), but he and Stewart did have a truly enlightening convo about the strike that eschewed Letterman-style self-righteousness and Leno guilt.

Colbert's mood was slightly lighter. Like Stewart, he rebranded his show, pronouncing Colbert with a hard T, and mocked the strike beard by beginning the show wearing a Hanukkah-Harry-esque face merkin. Colbert left Mad Lib-like gaps in his usual overdramatic intro and filled several minutes of his opening time with a never-ending audience ovation before chatting excitedly about Mike Huckabee's win in Iowa last week. His guest of the night, Libertarian conservative commentator Andrew Sullivan, was a bit more exciting than Stewart's, and the two chatted about Barack Obama (who has reportedly refused to appear on Colbert's show). Sullivan said Obama "is the only candidate who get us out of Iraq and bring the country ... together to do it. He is the only person ... who could bring the country together to solve and deal with climate change."

Colbert also featured more of his usual tricks than Stewart, including a fairly entertaining anti-union interview reel, and at one point suggesting that child labor could cure the nation's obese kiddie epidemic. One of the funniest moments of the night, on either show, was Colbert asking a union supporter, "You know who's got a lot of unions? Italy. You ever try to ride the train there? They just stop for 15 minutes because someone wants a lasagna break."

All in all, not a bad night. We'll take limping, writer-less Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert over a fully staffed Letterman any day.