The cast of “Battlestar Galactica” delivered the top 10 list on Letterman last night - that would probably be weird enough by itself, but the fact that everyone was introduced by character name and were in costume pushed it over the top. It was rather absurdly great in that regard, even if some of the gags fell flat - and the awkward delivery of James Callis (Gaius Baltar) was odd (perhaps he was trying to be in character, obviously Baltar is often quite confused by his surroundings).

The video is here, I’ll add an embeddable one if I can find it later.

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!

Though talk between Letterman and the writers had reportedly stymied as of late, today it was announced that he’ll be coming back Jan. 2 with his writing staff in tow. Basically, since “Late Show with David Letterman” is produced by Worldwide Pants, which is owned by Letterman, they were able to reach their own agreement. “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” is also a Worldwide Pants production, so he’ll probably be able to come back with his writers, too, if anyone cares or notices.

Not only is this a really cool move on Letterman’s part, it seems to put him at a huge advantage over “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” which will also be back Jan. 2, but sans writers. That show will likely be some sort of awkward-sounding interview show hybrid of what it used to be, while Letterman can continue business as normal - monologues, top 10 lists, “Know Your Current Events,” “Will It Float?” (I at least assume “Will It Float?” has writers). This might turn things around for Letterman, who has been trailing behind in the ratings something like 11 seasons in a row, ever since bombing at the Oscars and Hugh Grant apologized on Leno for getting inappropriate acts with a prostitute. It’ll also probably be more fun to watch than whatever Leno and Conan come up with - not that Letterman needs writers to be more entertaining than Leno.