According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount took down much of its content from several networks earlier this week. One of the networks to have its content taken down is Comedy Central, with many current and former staff members of The Daily Show showing concern over this decision. Comedy Central’s website along with Paramount-owned cable channels CMT, Paramount Network and TV Land removed content from their platforms. MTV News was also shut down earlier this week.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount has stated that the decision to scrap websites of their content was determined to cut half a billion dollars in costs amid declining profits. The company said, “We have introduced more streamlined versions of our sites, driving fans to Paramount+ to watch their favorite shows.”
Although the Comedy Central website used to host a large archive of episodes and clips of The Daily Show, covering a vast amount of the show’s history, it is now gone. Paramount+ currently only has the two most recent seasons of the late-night show available to stream. Some material is available on YouTube, but on The Daily Show’s channel, there hasn’t been material since before 2016.
“According to The Hollywood Reporter, former Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood Jr. (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver) wrote on X, “Gotta bring back the bootleg DVD man.” He continued, “This shit ain’t right.” Doug Herzog (Remote Control), who headed Comedy Central when The Daily Show launched, responded to the news of the content being scrapped by adding a facepalm emoji to a repost of Woods X post.
Wood’s post on X is down below.
Daniel Radosh (Liberty Crossing), writer and producer of The Daily Show on Bluesky, stated that the series staff would regularly use the clip archive on the website. He said, “Hey for extra fun guess what was the only way for people who still work at the show to find old clips that are important to have in the course of producing said show!”
Radosh’s post on Bluesky is down below.
Hey for extra fun guess what was the only way for people who still work at the show to find old clips that are important to have in the course of producing said show!
— Daniel Radosh (@radosh.bsky.social) Jun 26, 2024 at 6:29 PM
The executive producer of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver and 10-year Daily Show veteran Tim Carvell (Planet Tad) also responded to the news on the Bluesky social network. He said, “2002: ‘Careful, kids, the Internet is forever!’ 2024: ‘Oh, hey, all the work you did for a decade of your life was just deleted from the Internet for Business Reasons.’”