Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert aren’t sure what to say. The talk show hosts announced today that production on their shows, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, would resume on Jan. 7 — without their writing staffs. “We would like to return to work with our writers,” the duo said in a statement. “If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence.” Meanwhile, the WGA has eased its stance from being “disappointed” in those who cross the picket line (as did Carson Daly, a non-WGA member) to stressing that without their writers, Stewart and Colbert “will not give viewers the shows they’ve come to expect.”

Given a new threat by the Writers Guild of America to picket the Golden Globes — following the WGA’s earlier decision to deny a request that would have allowed the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Dick Clark Prods. to hire comedy writers for the telecast — there is growing concern that the actors may show solidarity for the strike by boycotting the Jan. 13 show. So far, the Screen Actors Guild hasn’t stated unequivocally that its members will stay home that night — but it hasn’t necessarily promised they would go, either. In a recent statement, the actors’ union said they “are in the process of reaching out to our elected leadership and members who have been nominated for Golden Globe awards. We will advise regarding our position once we have completed that outreach.”

It seems odd that Hollywood stars and writers would attempt to seriously disable — or flat-out boycott — a show meant to celebrate their achievements (the WGA has also indicated that it wouldn’t give Oscar the permission to hire comedy scribes or run film clips). But it’s understandable given the stakes, says New York labor attorney Lowell Peterson. “A strike is a strike,” says Peterson, a labor and bankruptcy partner from the firm Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein. “The purpose of a strike is to inflict economic pain. Producers depend on the promotional opportunity of these shows. With the WGA standing firm, they show they mean it: They are withholding labor until their demands are met.”

What’s more, Hollywood talents have demonstrated their willingness before to inflict major pain if and when their livelihood is on the line.

Flash back to July 21, 1980, when SAG and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists voted to strike. Hundreds of actors, furious at being cut out of the profits from the hot new home-video industry, walked off their sets and began a 95-day labor dispute that became one of the costliest and most acrimonious in Hollywood history. Amazingly, in the midst of it all, NBC decreed that the 32nd Annual Emmys had to go on anyway. “It didn’t start out bad,” executive producer Ken Ehrlich told EW in 2004. “[NBC president Brandon Tartikoff] said we were going to move on with the show. But then the closer it got, everybody just started getting sick.”

Those illnesses weren’t exactly a surprise. The actors announced their intention to boycott with an ad in the trade papers, signed by 39 of the 52 nominees. Some 80 celebrities stayed home that night, including most of the ones who were supposed to host the event, like Lee Remick, Bob Newhart, and Michael Landon. Dick Clark and Steve Allen were brought in as replacements, while network executives (like Tartikoff) and TV producers (like Police Woman‘s David Gerber) climbed on stage to present awards — more often than not to 8-by-10 glossies of absent winners.

“This is a star-studded audience!” Allen quipped at one point. “Three stars and 14 studs.”

The only truly surprising moment in the three-hour ceremony was when Powers Boothe suddenly appeared on stage to accept his win for Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones. It wasn’t the fact that Boothe won that was so shocking; it was that he was actually there. Clark had to scramble backstage to find a statuette to give him. “This is either the most courageous moment of my career, or the stupidest,” Boothe said on stage.

Viewership — big shocker — hit an all-time low (17 million). Afterward, Ehrlich printed up T-shirts that read “I Survived the 1980 Emmy Awards.” Ironically, he went on to earn Emmy nods himself for producing the Grammys. “You live long enough in this business, there are some things you’d like to forget,” Erlich told EW. “It was some f—ing show.”

In an unusual move that’s sure to further the divide between producers and striking writers, the Writers Guild of America announced on Thursday that it has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers of refusing to bargain in good faith.

In a statement released to the press announcing the move, the WGA said, “It is a clear violation of federal law for the AMPTP to issue an ultimatum and break off negotiations if we fail to cave to their illegal demands. We are in the midst of the holiday season, with thousands of our members and the membership of other unions out of work. It is the height of irresponsibility and intransigence for the AMPTP to refuse to negotiate a fair agreement with the WGA. We reiterate our demand that the AMPTP immediately return to the negotiations, rather than going on vacation, so that this town can be put back to work.”

The WGA is specifically referring to the breakdown of negotiations on Dec. 7 when the AMPTP refused to continue negotiating unless the writers withdrew their proposal to unionize reality and animation writers. The WGA responded in the press by saying the AMPTP has a given those kinds of ultimatums in the past — specifically, the Guild claims they were told earlier in the talks to drop their demands on DVD revenue in order to get a fair offer on new media issues.

Within minutes of the writers’ announcing their one-page filing with the Labor Board, the AMPTP issued a response stating: “The WGA’s filing of a complaint reminds us of the old lawyers’ adage: when the facts are on your side, argue the facts. When the law is on your side, argue the law. And when you don’t have either the law or the facts on your side, you pound on the table. The WGA has now been reduced to pounding the table, and this baseless, desperate NLRB complaint is just the latest indication that the WGA’s negotiating strategy has achieved nothing for working writers.”

In the continued attempt to overtake the WGA in the ongoing PR war, the AMPTP has posted a running ticker on its website showing the estimated amount of money the writers are supposedly losing while they remain on the picket line. An AMPTP insider says the number is expected to hit $150 million by Dec. 28.

After months of postponing their own contract talks while the striking writers tried to negotiate a deal, the Directors Guild of America sent up a flare today saying that it’s all but ready to meet with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers after the first of the year. In a letter to his fellow directors, DGA President Michael Apted (pictured) said the union “can’t abdicate its responsibility” to promptly renegotiate their contract set to expire June 30. The DGA routinely hammers out its deal with the companies early, but this time “held off for months in order to give the writers a chance to make a deal,” Apted said. It’s long been believed that the DGA would commence talks early, though some speculate that there is a portion of the membership that would rather wait even longer, out of respect for the writers.

“But now, with no end to the current impasse in sight, we find ourselves having to ask the hard question: Is it now our turn to sit across from the AMPTP?” the letter states. “In order to give the WGA and the AMPTP one last chance to get back to the table, we will not schedule our negotiations to begin until after the New Year, and then only if an appropriate basis for negotiations can be established. If it can, then the DGA will commence formal talks with the AMPTP in the hope that our bargaining strength and fresh perspective can help achieve a good and fair outcome for all concerned.”

The SAG contract also expires in June, but the actors — who are showing solidarity with the writers by joining them on the picket lines — are not expected to begin their talks until the WGA gets a deal.