BY HENRY HANKS

They’re back, some with writers, some without (and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert return next week). Here’s a quick look at how they’re doing so far:

Late Show with David Letterman: Dave struck a deal with the Writers’ Guild so he had his writers and his show… was more or less the same as always. I’ve resigned myself that his show will probably never be "groundbreaking" again in the way it was in the NBC years, and even the first few years on CBS. However, his opening monologue (far shorter than usual) and riffing was just as brilliant as ever. And writers or no writers, Robin Williams just becomes more grating with time. On the second night, he had Bill Maher (also grating at times), the delightful Ellen Page, and the cast of "Young Frankenstein" (sans Megan Mulally, see below), probably overjoyed at a chance to push their show on a national level. And for a second night, jokes about the "strike beard" continued. Grade: B+

Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Leno’s guest segments were longer and he claims that his monologue was written only by him (a point which is the source of a dispute with the Guild), but there was ultimately very little different from the norm here as well. I haven’t been much of a Leno fan and it’s hard to see how this will change much of anything. Even the use of a JibJab cartoon to fill time wasn’t much different from the usual. Leno is best with guests (such as Mike Huckabee and Emeril on the first night) so he is in pretty good shape overall, taking into account that he’s still Leno. Grade: C-

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Kimmel stood out by going off on a short rant against those picketing the writer-less shows, He was even more angry about the Screen Actors Guild’s hypocrisy, in his view, over allowing actors to work on films but not to do the aforementioned shows. He also admitted he didn’t quite know what he was allowed to do, so he did no monologue, told some anecdotes, played some "best-of" material (which would give his writers residuals), and had possibly the most tepid Andy Dick interview of all time — this of course was the show where Dick was physically kicked off the show by Kimmel after pawing at Ivanka Trump, so that was a big letdown. Kimmel and Dick badgering "Dancing with the Stars" winner Helio over rumors that he was dating his partner Julianne was slightly more amusing. But he may run out of steam soon. Not Kimmel’s best show, and I am a fan. Grade: C+

Late Night with Conan O’Brien: Meanwhile, I am a huge fan of Conan, and he seemed to run out of steam within minutes. His attempts to kill time by spinning his wedding ring, and running a taped piece (where he showed us some of his Christmas cards at one point) might have been funny on tape but were only sporadically so in reality. Needless to say, Bob Saget didn’t help matters. On night two, his practical jokes on NBC pages and tour groups were a lot better, and Megan Mulally was far more interesting. But can he keep this up? Really hard to say. Grade: B

Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson: I realize he’s charming and he’s doing something different, and his full hour of nothing but comedy was a great way to show appreciation to his returning writers… but sorry, I just don’t find him very funny (but perhaps I’m too much of a Kilborn partisan). On night two, he had quite the "get" (for him) with Mike Huckabee, but bad timing since it was taped prior to his win in Iowa. Grade: C

We’ll probably check in on Stewart, Colbert and these guys once again in the next week or two.