Many of you know that TV shows and movies regularly cycle in and out of the Hulu service. When a show is about to cycle out, we try our hardest to ensure that users who have subscribed to the show or have episodes of the show in their queue are notified in plenty of time so that they can catch up before the series sunsets. But typically we don’t recognize these expirations in any larger way than that, as it’s a fairly regular occurrence. Today, though, I want to recognize a couple of our favorite shows that are leaving the service for now, shows that we love so much that we simply can’t let them go without a more public and fond farewell.
The shows I’m referring to are The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, as well as a handful of library shows, all from Comedy Central. The team at Comedy Central have been great partners for us, and our users have been extremely vocal and passionate about how much they love what the Comedy Central folks are doing.
In the past 21 months, we’ve had very strong results for both Hulu and Comedy Central, in terms of the views and revenue we’ve generated, thanks to a couple of key trends. First, more and more of our viewers have voted with their time by making these shows a regular part of their day. And second, we’ve driven steadily increasing revenue per view as advertisers voted with their budgets to take advantage of innovative ad formats and very strong advertising effectiveness. After a series of discussions with the team at Comedy Central, though, we ultimately were unable to secure the rights to extend these shows for a much longer period of time.
So for now, these shows are rotating off the service — or more specifically, at 11:59 p.m. PST next Tuesday, March 9th, these shows will come down from Hulu. We encourage all of you to watch them at TheDailyShow.com and ColbertNation.com, either by going there directly or by searching on Hulu to help you get there. In the meantime, we are continuing to talk to the Comedy Central folks about a number of opportunities. They’re a great team and I’m confident that we’ll be working with them in multiple ways in the future … so stay tuned and know that we are scouring the earth for more great content for you.
Andy Forssell ()
Hulu Content Guy
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Hi Ben,
The Daily Show took a two-week break, but it’s back with all new episodes!!! Actually, last night’s episode is already up!
Thanks,
Hulu Support
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for posting. Don’t worry, nothing’s happened to The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. Both were on a two-week hiatus, but as of last night both have returned. In fact, last night’s episode is already on Hulu!
Thanks,
Hulu Support
What in the world! The Daily Show is the main reason I use Hulu! What are you thinking Hulu? Seriously. There are some other great shows, but without TDS I am second guessing my subscription!
No daily show — no hulu. Will cancel account immediately.