Stewart, Colbert return, without a net

Joining the other late-night hosts, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will return on Jan. 7 to “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” respectively.

The difference: Their shows are even more highly dependent upon their writers than Leno/Letterman/Kimmel/O’Brien/Ferguson, whose shows have a couple of comedy bits per hour but are mainly interviews. Also: Stewart and Colbert’s shows are smarter and tougher than the others. How can these guys possibly do all this on their own?

We’ll find out, but a couple of guesses: A lot more artfully edited clips from news reports, longer interviews and, if anything, more pointed political commentary. In their favor, they have two whole months of political hypocrisy, chicanery and incompetence to work with. Also: Authors of political books, not being actors, face fewer repercussions in crossing picket lines, and both Stewart and Colbert are excellent at extemporaneous humor, so the interviews can be longer and still plenty entertaining.

Stewart and Colbert issued a joint statement, underscoring their solidarity with their writing staffs: “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.”