Viewers await return of Stewart, Colbert (AP)

NEW YORK - Fans of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert awaited their return to the air Monday night with eagerness enhanced by curiosity: How would these funnymen deliver topical satire while stripped of their writers?

That, of course, is the challenge facing "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report," which have been out of production since the writers strike began nine weeks ago, and are now resuming with their writers still off the job.

While both Comedy Cental late-night series have always largely been scripted, that would now violate strike rules of the Writers Guild of America. Even Stewart and Colbert, as guild members, are apparently barred from writing anything.

But helping fill each half-hour, as usual, will be interview segments.

Monday, the scheduled "Daily Show" guest was Ronald Seeber, a Cornell University professor and expert on conflict resolution. The announced guests on "Colbert" were New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and The Atlantic magazine's Andrew Sullivan. GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee was expected to appear on "Colbert" Wednesday.

Waiting in line to see Monday's taping of "The Daily Show," New Jersey teacher Scott Gamble called himself "a huge fan of Jon Stewart's. He generally has the best election coverage on the air."

Meanwhile, Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America East, was among about 15 picketers gathered outside the Manhattan studio of "The Daily Show."

Winship said the union's complaint wasn't with Stewart or Colbert, but "that Viacom and Comedy Central will not yet make a fair and responsible contract" allowing the hosts "to get back their writers."

Also picketing, Adam Brooks -- who wrote and directed the upcoming feature "Definitely, Maybe" -- said: "We're trying to send a message that 'The Daily Show' and 'Stephen Colbert' are better shows with writers than without writers."

Even though barred from writing for his own show, Colbert was returning to the air a leading author: His humor book, "I Am America (And So Can You!)" currently holds the No. 1 slot on The New York Times best-selling nonfiction list.

The strike, which hinges on Internet revenue among other issues, began Nov. 5.

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Associated Press writer Clare Trapasso contributed to this report.

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Comedy Central is owned by Viacom.

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