I was a little late getting to the return of "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" because I was lingering over the OSU-LSU game, anticipating an Ohio State comeback that never came. (How do you squander a 10-0 lead? Penalties, penalties, penalties.) But I did have the recorder going and was checking out the fake news once it was clear that the sporting news would be bad. And so some notes, after the jump …

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The late-night dominoes continue to fall, with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert going back to work on Jan. 7.

If Conan' O'Brien's statement sounded like a guy with his arm twisted behind his back all the way up to his neck. Stewart and Colbert sound like two kids being pulled back to class by the ear. But it's becoming ever more evident that the production companies are amping up the pressure on people to go back to work. The concerns about immediate revenues are clearly outweighing the damage that could be done by putting on subpar shows. And no one is pretending these shows will be as good as what's done with full writing staffs.

Now we just have to see what will come from the Letterman company's meeting with the guild on Friday.