Netflix will remove Chappelle’s Show after the company got a call from the program’s creator asking the series be taken down.
Comedian Dave Chappelle said Netflix agreed to remove the comedy sketch show that bears his name after he called executives and told them he didn’t think it was fair that the show be broadcast since ViacomCBS was not paying him as per the contract he signed.
“They [ViacomCBS] didn’t have to pay me because I signed the contract,” Chappelle said in the video. “But is that right? I found out that these people were streaming my work, and they never had to ask me or they never have to tell me. Perfectly legal ‘cause I signed the contract. But is that right? I didn’t think so either.”
Chappelle’s Show, which ran on Viacom subsidiary Comedy Central between 2003 and 2006, was a major hit and garnered Chappelle star power and a multimillion-dollar contract with the network. He spoke about his contract with Viacom during his recent turn hosting Saturday Night Live, in which he described how his great-grandfather, a slave until the age of 10, might view his deal with the company.
“I wish I could see him now, and I wish he could see me,” Chappelle said. “I wonder what he would say. This week, I flew to New York on a private jet to host Saturday Night Live. Netflix started streaming a show that bears his name, Chappelle’s Show, and HBO Max is streaming it. And I didn’t get paid for any of it. If he could see me now, he’d probably be like, ‘This n—a got bought and sold more than I have.’”
Chappelle, who recently said he signed the contract out of necessity, said he preferred working with Netflix to traditional production houses because it was so open to hearing his concerns.
“I like working for Netflix because when all those bad things happened to me, that company didn’t even exist,” Chappelle said. “And when I found out they were streaming Chappelle’s Show, I was furious. How could they not — how could they not know? So you know what I did? I called them, and I told them that this makes me feel bad. And you want to know what they did? They agreed that they would take it off their platform just so I could feel better.”
