Stewart, Colbert return to late night

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NEW YORK, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. late-night talk show hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were back on the air Monday after a two-month absence due to the Hollywood writers strike.

Both hosts returned to work on their nighttime Comedy Central shows without their writers who are still on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

On "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," the host mocked the AMPTP's argument that new media revenue had not yet been sufficiently established, The Hollywood Reporter noted.

The $1.99 charge to download "The Daily Show" on iTunes was "not a content charge; it's a shipping and handling charge," Stewart quipped.

Stewart also joked about the Screen Actors Guild's show of solidarity with the striking writers.

"Oh my God, you guys got Sean Penn to advocate your cause. You must have -- a cause," Stewart observed.

Colbert, discussed the strike with his "Colbert Report" guest Richard Freeman, the author of a book about unions.

"The workers would not be workers; they'd just be people unless the capitalists said here's a place to work," Colbert said, pretending to side with the conglomerates.