The Blank Screen

I'm not much of a TV watcher, but I am a big fan of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, and I have missed their take on the news during the writers' strike. In solidarity with the WGA, I have not even watched re-runs of the shows during the course of the strike.

It's now reported that both shows will be coming back after the New Year. The go-to place for all things Colbert, No Fact Zone first report on the news. The NYtimes reports, Stewart and Colbert to Return Without Writers:

Comedy Central’s pair of popular news satirists, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, will return to their television shows on Jan. 7, two months after production was suspended because of a writers’ strike.

Mr. Stewart, host of “The Daily Show,” and Mr. Colbert, host of “The Colbert Report,” will have to improvise their monologues and interviews without the help of their writing staffs.

In a statement, Comedy Central said, “We continue to hold out hope for a swift resolution to the current stalemate that will enable the shows to be complete again.”

It was unclear why the two men decided to return. The announcement came days after the NBC hosts Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien and the ABC host Jimmy Kimmel said they would resume their late-night shows on Jan. 2.

The Huffington Post also reports on the news, "Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" To Return In January — Without Writers, noting the reaction of Stewart and Colbert:

'We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence.'

— Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert

As Deadline Hollywood Daily added, Official: Stewart/Colbert Return Jan. 7th:

Meanwhile, the WGA issued this response to the news: “Comedy Central forcing Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert back on the air will not give the viewers the quality shows they’ve come to expect. The only way to get the writing staffs back on the job is for the AMPTP companies to come back to the table prepared to negotiate a fair deal with the Writers Guild.”

This puts me in a real quandary. Much as I want to watch -- can I? Will I?