Anyone who tuned in to the second half of Comedy Central’s nighttime comedy block last night saw a new episode of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, but a rerun of The Colbert Report (a new episode with interview guest Claire Danes was scheduled).

We now know that the reason for the rerun is that Comedy Central has cancelled taping of the hit show due to “unforeseen circumstances.” Comedy Central VP Steve Albani told Politico that “the show will air repeat episodes on Wednesday, February 15th and Thursday, February 16th.”

Here’s a tweet from a staff member of The Colbert Report who seems to be in the dark about all of this as well:

@PeteDominick
Pete DominickYes I work at the Colbert Report and No I dont know why the show is off for 2 nights. 37 minutes ago via HootSuite ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

People who were set to attend the tapings have hit the interwebs, one even posting the email they received from the show regarding the cancellations to twitpic:

For those of you with bad eyes, that says “due to unforeseen circumstances, we have cancelled our taping for the date of your ticket reservation….We are very sorry for any inconvenience. Unfortunately, we are unable to reschedule your tickets.”

Something like this is unprecedented for the Colbert Report. As Huffington Post points out, Jon Stewart’s Daily Show has only been suspended like this due to personal reasons – the birth of a child and a death to someone close to him.

It’s expected that production should resume soon: