David Letterman has the write stuff after all.

The gap-toothed comic's production company, Worldwide Pants, and the
Writers Guild of America have stitched together a deal that will
allow CBS' Late Show and The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson to
return to the air Jan. 2 with their full writing staffs.

Worldwide Pants, which produces both programs, initially had hoped to
leave Late Show fans last week with a nice holiday gift?a pre-
Christmas proclamation that Letterman would be returning to the home
office?but discussions stalled.

Finally on Friday, the WGA confirmed that the two parties have
reached a "binding independent agreement" that will allow him to
resume broadcasting. In return, writers who work on The Late Show and
The Late, Late Show will be fairly compensated for material they
create that is distributed via the Web.

"Today's agreement dramatically illustrates that the Writers Guild
wants to put people back to work and that when a company comes to the
table prepared to negotiate seriously, a fair and reasonable deal can
be reached quickly," read the union statement.

"I am grateful to the WGA for granting us this agreement," Letterman
said in a statement. "We're happy to be going back to work, and
particularly pleased to be doing it with our writers. This is not a
solution to the strike, which unfortunately continues to disrupt the
lives of thousands. But I hope it will be seen as a step in the right
direction."

Since Letterman independently owns the production outfit, he was able
to cut a side deal with striking writers. CBS had been airing repeats
of his and Ferguson's gabfests since Nov. 5, when they went off air
in solidarity with striking film and television writers who are
seeking a bigger slice of the new-media pie. Both Letterman and
Ferguson are WGA members.

Rivals Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel all
announced plans early last week to resume broadcasting duties on Jan.
2 sans scribes.

"It's time for NBC-Universal to step up to the plate and negotiate a
companywide deal that will put Jay Leno, who has supported our cause
from the beginning, back on the air with his writers."

They were quickly joined by Comedy Central's clown princes, Jon
Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who revealed they would be coming back
in fresh episodes starting Jan. 7 but would still honor striking
writers by ad-libbing their way through the shows.

Like his late-night competitors, Letterman has been paying his
writers out of pocket while they take to the picket lines.