David Letterman could steal a march on his long-time rival, Jay Leno, when the two giants of America's late night talk shows return to air tonight two months into a bitter Hollywood writers' strike.

Letterman has lagged behind Leno in the ratings since 1995 but has a chance to regain the upper hand as he ventures back with his writing team under a special deal between his production company and the Writers Guild of America (WGA).

That will enable Letterman to return with a full complement of monologue jokes and comedy links, including his nightly Top 10 List, and make it easier to book star guests who might have balked at crossing picket lines to appear.

Leno, who will return without his writers, could face trouble attracting members of the Screen Actors Guild and, as a WGA member himself, is not allowed to include pre-prepared material in his show.

CBS says that the first guest on tonight's Late Show with David Letterman will be the actor Robin Williams, followed tomorrow by Ellen Page, the Canadian star of the art-house movie hit Juno. NBC’s Tonight Show With Jay Leno has so far announced only the Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee as its first guest.

The two shows were thrown into immediate re-runs when the WGA went on strike against major studios on November 5. The dispute, Hollywood’s worst labour unrest in 20 years, has hinged on disagreement over how writers should be paid for work distributed over the internet.

Leno, Letterman and other late-night stars resisted pressure to renew production for weeks, even as ratings for reruns of their shows plunged. They began planning to return when talks to end the walkout collapsed on December 7.

Letterman was able to cut a deal with the WGA for his show and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, which airs on CBS in the time slot following his own, because both programmes are independently produced by his company, Worldwide Pants Inc.

Letterman also scored union points as an outspoken critic of studio executives involved in the WGA talks, describing them on his show as “cowards, cutthroats and weasels”.

Letterman’s NBC counterparts – Leno and O'Brien – will have to ask their guests to cross picket lines, as will ABC's Jimmy Kimmel.

The strike adds a new dynamic to a rivalry between Leno and Letterman that dates to Leno being chosen over Letterman to take over The Tonight Show after the retirement of Johnny Carson in 1992. Letterman jumped to CBS and outrated Leno for the first two years, but has since been trailing.

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010