What a night of television. Right now, Conan O’Brien is on “A Daily Show,” and earlier (but actually later everywhere else in the country), Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were both on “Late Night.” This “feud” - over who “made” Mike Huckabee - has been great stuff, and the pre-tape with Huckabee himself was a solid conclusion (though it could have been funnier. Weird to see him still shilling for his campaign at this state). As good as the fight on “Late Night” was (everyone getting thrown down the stairs, and the fake-out with the Conan double), the Conan/Colbert duet in the hallway might have been the best part thus far. I guess Conan and Stewart will be on “The Colbert Report” in a half hour or so. Truly the most fun you can have without writers!

And the footage of Conan on MTV’s Jon Stewart Show might never get old. They looked so young! Jon especially. Poor guy. Conan is literally a foot (or more) taller than him.

Here’s last night’s epic battle, in case you missed it (and until NBC has it yanked off YouTube):

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Oh boy, does Letterman look awesome with that beard.

Of course, his show might have been the least “interesting” of Wednesday’s returning late night talk shows, given that he actually had writers, unlike Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien or Jimmy Kimmel. That being said, Letterman still had plenty of filler, like “Know Your Staff.”

I only watched some of Leno, since my interest in both Mike Huckabee and Emeril Lagasse is rather low, but it seemed to be pretty much what I expected - more about interviews (the Huckster got two segments) than hilarious bit like that fat kid going places and asking dumb questions. I thought it was weird that he wrote a monologue, I wonder if that means comedy writers are going to break his legs sometime tonight.

Conan’s beard was EVEN MORE AWESOME, though. Seriously, he looked way manlier than ever before, for whatever that may be worth. And the video package of him playing Rock Band with his staff (which was an integral part of both Thanksgiving and Christmas in the Ching household) was pretty entertaining, although I wonder what kind of scores he was getting for that Edith Bunker doing Sabotage routine (that’s pretty much what I do, too, although less hilariously and consciously. It usually works pretty well).

I didn’t see much of Jimmy, but when I finally remembered to switch over it was a performance by Kid Rock. DO NOT WANT. I’m sure Craig Ferguson was charming in his own Scottish way.

It really shows how starved I am for new TV (and not new, Jeremy Sisto-fueled “Law & Order” ) that I was SO PSYCHED for tonight. Really, it was sort of weird. What ended up happening was not the wacky trainwreck many thought it might be but not as good as fully-staffed episodes of the non-Letterman shows usually are (although I have heard people say that Leno’s monologue was funnier than usual, that could be true but I don’t dig it either way). So really it was just kind of boring episodes of late night TV. But with beards! Next week with Colbert and The Daily Show without writers should really be interesting (maybe).

And what the heck, there was a new “Gossip Girl” tonight?! Usually when I check my DVR these days, it’s just a sad, hollow gesture, but now I have something to watch and fall asleep during! Hurray!

So Jay and Conan are going back to work Jan. 2. Unsurprisingly, this has incurred the wrath of some people - notable, those commenting on the Deadline Hollywood blog (which is down as I write this but hopefully comes back soon).

The basic gist is this: Leno and Conan are filthy scabs for daring to go back to work. Conan is even more egregious, being that he cut his teeth as a writer on “The Simpsons.” Traitors, right?

These folks are ignoring two relatively obvious principles - first, that O’Brien and Leno won’t actually be doing any “scab work.” As WGA members, they’re not going to be writing monologues or skits, and they won’t be hiring picket-crossers to do so, either. The shows will probably be fairly awkward as a result - like a hopefully less dry Charlie Rose - but ultimately, they’re not saying they disagree with the strike.

Which is of course, the second, perhaps even more obvious factor - they don’t want their non-writing staff members to go unemployed. Leno made reference to about 100 employees that have lost their jobs as a result of this strike, and it’s pretty classy to try and do something about that. There’s no real great answer to it, either way someone gets screwed.

It looks like Letterman, though, might be finding a way around it .