Movies & TV / News
Netflix Removes Chappelle’s Show At Dave Chappelle’s Request, Chappelle Says He’s Not Being Paid For It
If you were gearing up to watch Chappelle’s Show now that it’s arrived on Netflix, bad news: it’s gone, and that’s at Dave Chappelle’s request. Deadline reports that Netflix has pulled the comedy series from its service after licensing it on a non-exclusive basis and making it available on November 1st in the US.
Chappelle was the man who actually made the request to Netflix, as he noted in a video posted to his Instagram account on Tuesday morning. In the video, which was filmed during one of his recent standup sets, Chappelle says that he asked Netflix, who he has a deal with for his standup specials to take the show down because he doesn’t approve of ViacomCBS being able to license it without paying him any money. Netflix obliged.
Chappelle noted that he fully understand that what ViacomCBS is doing is legal, as the contract he signed did not give him rights to licensing profits. He simply doesn’t think that’s right, noting that he was naive at the time and signed a bad deal that everyone told him was a good one. He noted, “People think I made a lot of money from Chappelle’s Show. When I left that show I never got paid. They (ViacomCBS) didn’t have to pay me because I signed the contract. 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.”
He continued, “That’s why I like working for Netflix. I like working for Netflix because when all those bad things happened to me, that company didn’t even exist. 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. That’s why I f**k with Netflix. Because they paid me my money, they do what they say they’re going to do, and they went above and beyond what you could expect from a businessman. They did something just because they thought that I might think that they were wrong. And I do — I think that if you are f**king streaming that show you’re fencing stolen goods.”
Chappelle’s Show was a big hit for Comedy Central from 2003 until 2006. Chappelle co-creater, executive produced and starred in the show, which ended abruptly when Chappelle left the show over creative conflicts regarding what he was and wasn’t allowed to say on it. The show is still available to stream on Comedy Central and CBS All Access, and was recently licensed by HBO Max.
