Viacom has decided to pull The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and other Comedy Central content from Hulu at 11:59 PST on March 9. It's presumably doing so because the income it receives from the online venture isn't good enough.

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are two of the most popular shows on Hulu, so it's a big loss for both the video site — which just posted about the "farewell" on its blog — and for consumers of web video, thousands of whom have daily turned to Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert for a bit of entertainment and news during their cubicle lunch breaks.

This is arguably Hulu's first big programming setback, though other online entertainment services like Netflix Watch Instantly and GameTap have lost important content deals in the past.

Viacom says both shows will still be available at their respective websites (thedailyshow.com and colbernation.com) and at Comedy Central's website, but many viewers prefer the clean TV experience they get at Hulu, so they won't be thrilled with that. Of course, the shows will still air on Comedy Central's cable TV channel each night.

Maybe Viacom is hoping that viewership on its own air and websites will improve if the shows aren't available elsewhere. We're not so sure it will, but we'll be observing to find out. We're also not sure exactly what caused the arrangement between Viacom and Hulu to end. Hulu simply said it was unable to secure the rights. Viacom might have asked for a financial deal the site was unable to agree to.