I doubt Michael Malice and Ari Shaffir requested their episode be removed. Also, it's unlikely that such a concerted effort would take place within days by a large number of Joe's guests.

interesting guess, but it can only be part of the story if its true at all. a lot of those people are Joe's best friends that would more likely go down in flames than abandon him (ari, bert, tom, bill).

a more likely angle is some intermediary like publishers or managers are making decisions through contracts or deals.

Many of the "deleted" guests still have other episodes that are up, so it's definitely not that.