In perhaps proving DirecTV’s point, The Daily Show ran a segment last night where they criticized the satellite provider and Viacom for not coming to terms on rates for the foreseeable future. The result of this dispute was that channels like MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon were all pulled from the packager’s cable lineup—something that Jon Stewart found simply ridiculous.
The point the news-skewer took with last night’s show is that there are bigger fish to fry in the world over viewership of Jersey Shore and even his program. He said that if people want to see The Daily Show that badly, they will probably be able to get it for free over the internet no matter what Viacom does and that his parent company’s move to pull online content made no sense. Stewart also made the point that other shows exist on a 100+ channel lineup so any real impact on consumers would likely be short-lived.
To bring it home, Stewart welcomed Daily Show Senior Correspondent John Oliver who proceeded to give a play-by-play to DirecTV customers complete with a fake Louis C.K. to those left out in the cold.