Late-night TV hosts returned to the air Wednesday after a two-month hiatus, showing support for their striking writers and at least two scruffy beards.

David Letterman walked onstage amid dancing girls holding picket signs stating support for striking writers.

A bearded David Letterman is escorted on stage by 'picketers' during a taping of The Late Show with David Letterman.
( J.P. Filo/Associated Press)

Letterman's writers are back on the job, but NBC's Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel returned without their writers.

Filler was immediately evident on the shows without writers.

O'Brien, sporting facial growth to match his red hair, showed off Christmas cards, danced on his table as his band played the Clash's The Magnificent Seven and tried to see how long he could spin his wedding ring on his desk.

Leno took questions from his audience.

"I want to make this clear. I support their cause," O'Brien said of the writers. "These are very talented, very creative people who work extremely hard. I believe what they're asking for is fair."

Letterman, who had grown a mostly white beard, brought writers on to recite a Top 10 list of their strike demands. They included "complimentary tote bag with next insulting contract offer" and "Hazard pay for breaking up fights on The View."

"You're watching the only show on the air that has jokes written by union writers," Letterman said. "I hear you at home thinking to yourself, 'This crap is written?'"

Guest Robin Williams teased Letterman unmercifully about his beard, alternately comparing him to Gen. Robert E. Lee, a rabbi and an Iraqi mullah.

Presidential politics intruded on the eve of the Iowa caucus: Republican Mike Huckabee appeared on Leno despite his apparent confusion about the strike and a bid by picketers to keep him away, and Democrat Hillary Clinton taped a cameo introducing Letterman.

"Dave has been off the air for eight long weeks because of the writers' strike," she said. "Tonight, he's back. Oh well, all good things come to an end."

Huckabee said he supports the writers and did not think he would be crossing a picket line because he believed the writers had made an agreement to allow late-night shows on the air. That's not the case with Leno.

"Huckabee is a scab," read one picket sign outside Leno's Burbank, Calif., studio.

Letterman company reaches separate deal

The writers guild urged Huckabee not to cross their picket line after he flew to California, but Huckabee appeared on Leno, showing off his electric guitar playing with the band.

"Huckabee claims he didn't know," chief union negotiator John Bowman said. "I don't know what that means in terms of trusting him as a future president."

Letterman had writers because his production company, Worldwide Pants, struck a separate deal with the guild. The deal also allowed writers to return to The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS.

Picketing writers outside O'Brien's studio in New York's Rockefeller Center said they were hoping to encourage people not to appear on the shows where writers weren't working. Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America, East, said he expected Letterman'sLate Show to be a "bully pulpit" for striking writers and their issues.

Leno's staff writers, who regularly picket at one of the gates to NBC studios, did not show up on Wednesday. Writers insist they're demonstrating against NBC, not Leno, who was supportive of his writers in the strike's early days.

"It must be difficult for them to picket their own boss," said Allan Katz, a veteran sitcom writer. "Probably Jay Leno understands."

Besides depriving the nation of punch lines, the two months of reruns have been devastating for the networks — particularly NBC.

Late-night leader Leno is averaging 4.4 million viewers this season, losing one-quarter of his audience from last season. Before the strike, his audience was off 10 per cent, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Letterman's average of 3.6 million viewers is 15 per cent off last season. Before the strike, his viewership was down 9 per cent.