VIDEO: How emotional late night hosts handled 9/11 when they returned to the air

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, shook the media industry like everyone else. But perhaps the most emotional responses to 9/11 in the days and weeks that followed came from two of television's most unlikely figures: David Letterman and Jon Stewart.

The late night hosts returned to the air the week following the attacks on Washington, D.C., and New York with heavy hearts.

"There is no other way to start this show other than ask you at home the question we asked the audience here tonight and that we've asked everybody here in New York since September 11th," Stewart began. "And that is, 'Are you O.K.?'"

Letterman, seated behind his familiar desk at the Ed Sullivan Theater, apologized at the top of the Sept. 17, 2001 "Late Show" broadcast. There was no monologue that night. "If we're going to continue to do shows, I'm going to need to hear myself talk for a couple minutes."

Later, the teary-eyed funnyman had to console his guest, Dan Rather, as they talked through the tragedy.

Watch the highlights of those shows, and others, below:

(H/T: Rafat Ali)