Jay Leno, seen here in a picture with Tom Green from (believe it or not) just a few weeks ago, is probably leaving NBC. Of course, it was announced some time ago that Conan O’Brien would take over as host of “The Tonight Show” in 2009, but it was speculated - at least somewhat - that Leno would pull a Tom Brokaw, and stick around the network in other capacities, like hosting an American version of “Top Gear.” To NBC’s credit, they haven’t wavered at all, and still seem set on giving Conan the slot (weird stat: Conan has know been doing “Late Night” on NBC longer than Letterman).

But the nagging fact that “The Tonight Show” still consistently gets better ratings than anything else on late night has gotten other networks, namely Fox and ABC, interested in signing him for a late night show. Which begs the question - does “The Tonight Show” do good ratings because it’s “The Tonight Show” or because of Jay Leno? For the many Jay Leno haters out there, of which I am one, it’s easy to just say that it’s because of the long legacy of “The Tonight Show.” But with NBC ratings in the gutter for much of the last few years, Leno still outperforms Letterman, like it or not - even during the strike, when Letterman had writers and Leno did not (purportedly). This could be the first interesting period in late night talk shows in about 15 years. Who knows what 2023 will hold!

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 .