On Sunday, March 24, 2013, Peter Jackson hosted an exclusive live online event to premiere new footage from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – the second film in his trilogy inspired by the classic J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy novel – and answer questions from viewers and a selection of special surprise guests. This event was open only to those who had purchased The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on Blu-ray and received a unique passcode to access the live feed.

Today, Jackson has released a 6-minute edited excerpt of the event on his YouTube channel. You can watch the video here below.

Half-hour political comedy programs The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will return to U.S.-based streaming media site Hulu effective immediately, according a blog post written by Hulu CEO Jason Kilar discussing the company’s new deal with Viacom.

Episodes will become available on the site the morning after they premiere on the network and remain available for about a month. Additionally, both programs will be made available via Hulu Plus, the company’s premium subscription service that allows users to stream select programming to mobile and set top boxes like the Roku Player.

Coming to Comedy Central this Sunday at 10pm is A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All!, an original one-hour musical holiday special hosted by the Colbert Report‘s Stephen Colbert.

The program will feature musical performances by Colbert, as well as Elvis Costello, Feist, Toby Keith, John Legend, Willie Nelson, and Jon Stewart.

After its premiere this weekend, A Colbert Christmas will be released on DVD on Tuesday, November 25, and include several bonus features. Also on Tuesday, iTunes will exclusively offer a digital album with songs from the TV special, with a portion of the proceeds going to charity.

Watch clips from the upcoming special here below; for full details of the show, DVD, and digital album, see the full press release below.