All of the major late-night hosts — Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien, and Craig Ferguson — return to the air tonight with new episodes for the first time since the Hollywood writers' strike [1] began in November. Leno, Kimmel, and O'Brien will be winging it without their writers (and with picketing writers demonstrating outside their shows' studios [2]).

Letterman and Ferguson, however, have their writing staffs intact [3] after Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company, which owns the shows, cut a deal with the Writers Guild of America. That might also help the shows to get better guests since there won't be a picket line to cross — Letterman, for example, is returning with Robin Williams on the couch.

I'm wondering: Are you more likely to watch Letterman (or Craig Ferguson) because the writers' union says it's OK?

Photos courtesy of CBS [4]