Comedy is the first casualty of the Hollywood writers' strike. Late-night satire — a source of news for young audiences — was silenced in Day 1 of the walkout Monday. Felled, at least temporarily: David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Conan O'Brien, among others. MORE: If strike continues, more series will be sidelined Saturday Night Live also goes into repeats this weekend, and sitcoms filmed before studio audiences will follow soon. Shows such as CBS' Two and a Half Men shut down Monday, stymied as writers refused to participate in the rewrites made during shooting. The show will run out of completed episodes by month's end. A key sticking point is a demand for royalty payments from the re-use of movies and TV shows online. "We all know how lucky we are to have the jobs we have. We're not asking for much," said SNL's Seth Meyers, picketing Monday in front of NBC's studios at Rockefeller Center. "(But) you have to change the rules because people are watching TV in a different way." Said Daily Show writer and correspondent John Oliver: "I can't imagine anyone here would like to be here. We'd all rather be at work." The shutdown will also limit a big part of the Hollywood publicity machine, as actors will lose a primary outlet to hawk their holiday movies. The last strike, which lasted 22 weeks in 1988, kept Johnny Carson off the air for 10 weeks and saw Letterman's routines rest for four months; each returned with his own ad-libbed material. The impact on the rest of television will be felt soon. Look for more repeats, movies, reality series and newsmagazines to fill vacant big-network time slots amid worries that viewers will defect to the Internet or cable, which is less affected by the walkout. "A lot of people stopped watching in the last strike, and some didn't come back," says Simpsons executive producer James L. Brooks. Dramas and other comedies such as The Office continued to film Monday, though Office star Steve Carell didn't show up for work. But the pace will slow down quickly as the supply of scripts dwindles. Among other network shifts, NBC plans to yank Friday Night Lights and Las Vegas to conserve episodes. "We've stopped any writing work completely, and the whole thing will be shut down by Friday," said 30 Rock's Tina Fey. But ever the optimist, she hoped for a quick settlement: "I have a fantasy that (California) Gov. (Arnold) Schwarzenegger will swoop into L.A. to settle something somehow." Contributing: Peter Johnson in New York and Bill Keveney in Los Angeles Enlarge Getty Images The Late Show with David Letterman, like other late-night talk shows, will go into repeats until the writers' strike is settled. Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map.