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I love Late Night Writers' Strike TV.

I've been watching David Letterman with the kind of devout attention I usually reserve for "Battlestar Galactica." Largely it's because I know his writers are back, and as such, his show is a possible venue for the odd strike-related joke.

For example: A fake commercial from the AMPTP, complaining that the WGA expects writers to be paid 2 1/2 cents per iTunes download -- a complaint illustrated with a picture of 2 and 1/2 pennies. But the WGA hasn't thought this through. "How are we supposed to cut a penny in half?" the piece lamented. "With magic penny scissors?"

Also, I really enjoy any segment which dances in the general direction of making Dave squirm a little. Chris Elliot rubbing himself all over Dave's desk was good; Howard Stern asking Dave about his love life was event better.

But my real addiction, and I say it with some shame, is the nightly spectacle of Conan and Colbert soft-shoeing through 30 to 60 minutes of airtime armed with nothing but their wits and an honorable determination to not write one single syllable of content before show time.

The interviews are hit or miss. It's hard to really hate the Nobel Prize winning economist who appears on Colbert to discuss microloans -- I mean, yes, he crossed the picket line, but on the other hand, better him than, say Wolf Blitzer. Or Huckabee. Again. God, does that man do nothing but appear on talk shows and produce folksy aphorisms about pigs, butter, barns and weather vanes?

Conan has the bigger problem -- his guests are limited almost entirely to talent all-but-forced to appear as a promotion for NBC/Universal content (Hulk Hogan for "American Gladiators," Howie Mandel for "Deal or No Deal") while Dave has racked up Stern, Tom Hanks, Morgan Freeman and Tom Brokaw. (Yes, I'm aware that technically, Dave goes up against another NBC late night show, but for some reason, I can never remember to tune in. Huh, go figure.)

But the raw found comedy in between the interviews is... delightful. Conan riding a little girl's bicycle. Colbert's off-the-cuff riffing on New Hampshire. Turning the Late Night set into a German discotheque, complete with Conan yelling in a German accent, "How do you like my light show, ja?"

At the end of a segment introducing viewers to a Late Night associate producer who enjoys protein shakes, cracking a bullwhip and the music of Rush, Conan shook his head woefully at the depths to which he had sunk. "I've never hated the writers' strike more."

Oddly, I've never loved it more.