Last evening, after three months on the picket line, 92.5% of Writers Guild of America members voted to end their work stoppage immediately and ratify a new contract with television and movie producers on Feb. 25.

This morning, many will be back at their computers. The earliest beneficiaries will be the late-night talk shows, with Jon Stewart signaling the resumption of normality by ditching the moniker he’s been using during the strike – A Daily Show, as opposed to The Daily Show. Soap operas will also get back to what passes for normal among their ilk, with their writing staffs quickly churning out sudsy scripts.

To the great relief of media strategists on both sides of the border, writers are also expected to immediately begin working on the Academy Awards broadcast, skedded for Feb. 24 on CTV in Canada and ABC in the US.

New episodes of sitcoms could be on air within four to six weeks, according to Michael Winship, head of the Writers Guild of America East. He says drama scripts will take a little longer, likely ending up on screen in six to eight weeks. Although debate continues about various aspects of the tentative contract conditions, Winship says it ‘allows writers to go into the 21st century,’ in that it guarantees them a share of revenues generated in new-media platforms.

Click here for MiC‘s earlier story on which series are returning when.