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YULE TUBE: Christmas comedy from Colbert and that cable guy

Well, here are two different approaches to comedy, all right -- Larry the Cable Guy's Star Studded Christmas Extravaganza (Friday at 9 p.m. ET, CMT) and A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! (Sunday at 10 p.m. ET, Comedy Central).

Both new specials try to revive the variety tradition in their own ways: redneck raucousness and sarcastic smarm. So shoot us for liking both.

Larry the Cable Guy isn't kidding about that title. His live concert celebration comes packin' lots of star power -- Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Lewis Black, Tony Orlando, Toby Keith, Blake Shelton, Fred Willard, Joey Fatone, Terry (please, please don't sing) Bradshaw, and many more.

Colbert gets excited about the season, too -- excited enough to be "sporting a yule log." (Heh-heh.) Marooned for the holiday in his snowy mountain cabin [pictured above], the "broadcasting legend" still manages to cross paths with Jon Stewart, Elvis Costello, John Legend, Feist, the ubiquitous Toby Keith and, our favorite, Willie Nelson, who offers a personal Christmas carol about that "wonder weed" so dear to his heart (and lungs).

Second chances, all times ET: Larry the Cable Guy's Star Studded Christmas Extravaganza repeats Friday at 10:30 p.m., Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and 1 a.m., Sunday at 8 and 11:30 p.m., and pretty much daily beyond that, so check listings. A Colbert Christmas repeats Sunday night at midnight, Tuesday at 10 p.m. and midnight, and subsequent times, so check listings.

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Diane Werts has been glued to the tube since she can remember, growing up in a household where the TV came on first thing in the morning and stayed on till bedtime and beyond. She worked for the USA Film Festival, then for The Dallas Morning News writing about everything from Shakespeare to macrame art to rock music (and has the hearing loss to prove it). She moved to New York's Newsday to edit their glossy TV magazine, then returned to writing about television, specializing in its stranger permutations. She's a past president of the Television Critics Association.

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