Letterman sports a strikers beard! The late-night shows are quietly talking to each other about all coming back on the air at once - before the ongoing writers' strike is over.

"Nobody wants to be vilified like Ellen DeGeneres or Carson Daly," two shows that broke with strikers and went back on the air early, said one source.

"But it's getting to the point where they are beginning to realize that this [strike] could be going on for a while and they're trying to figure out a way to get back on the air sooner rather than later," says the source.

If the late-night shows go back into production before the strike is settled, at least some members of the Writers Guild will understand - the late-night comedy writers themselves.

"We will never be able to repay [Letterman] for what he did for us," says "Late Show" writer Bill Sheft, who also serves as the show's union rep for the Writers Guild. "Dave Letterman on the air without writers and pissed off about it would be as powerful as anything we [union members] can do. He will rail nightly at the greedy pinheads that put him in this position.

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