“Don’t tell anyone,” says Colbert.

Daft Punk failed to perform on The Colbert Report last night as scheduled due to a contractual agreement with MTV that will instead see them play at the MTV Video Music Awards later this month.

Host Stephen Colbert explained that he only knew of the cancellation two hours before the robots were due to perform on the TV show:

“Here’s the story: it’s a true story. We booked click and clack over here about a month ago. This network is owned by Viacom, which is also the owner of MTV… Apparently, Daft Punk are going to make a surprise appearance on the MTV Video Music Awards. Don’t tell anyone, because fun fact: no one told me until two hours ago.”

Instead of seeing Daft Punk play ‘Get Lucky’, viewers had to make do with Robin Thicke performing the other Pharrell-helmed enormo-hit of the year, ‘Blurred Lines’, leading some to speculate if the whole thing was a stunt to promote the VMAs.

Either way, it looks like the robots will be performing at the MTV VMAs on 25 August. Kanye West is also scheduled to perform ‘Black Skinhead’ at the ceremony. [via CoS; Pitchfork]

Daft Punk have contributed to the biggest year for single sales in British chart history in 2013, selling over a million copies of the track we’re probably never going to be bored of, ‘Get Lucky’.