Stewart, Colbert shows will return

"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" will resume production Jan. 7.

Both shows will return "without their respective writing staffs," according to a Comedy Central news release. The scribes for the shows have been on strike, along with the rest of the Writers Guild of America, since Nov. 5.

In a joint statement, Stewart and Stephen Colbert said, "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."

Comedy Central officials said "we continue to hold out hope for a swift resolution to the current stalemate that will enable the shows to be complete again."

NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" previously said they are returning without writers Jan. 2, as will Jimmy Kimmel of ABC. David Letterman also will probably return to his CBS late-night show soon, if his production company can reach an interim deal with the union.