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Don’t mess with Dave Chappelle. Netflix has pulled Chappelle’s Show from its service at the comedian’s request, just a few weeks after adding it at the start of November, Deadline reports. Earlier today Chappelle revealed in an Instagram post that he asked Netflix to take down his ‘00s-era sketch show, and the streamer, which has a years-long and incredibly lucrative relationship with Chappelle, complied.
The issue? Well, Viacom CBS, which owns Chappelle’s Show and has licensed it to multiple streaming services, doesn’t pay Chappelle himself when they strike those deals. The comedian admits they don’t have to per the contract he signed back in the ‘00s, but he understandably doesn’t think it’s right that the person who created a show, and whose name is in the title, doesn’t get a cut when companies pay big money to license it. When he found out that Netflix—who, again, has paid him handsomely for his last several stand-up specials—was streaming the show without him getting paid for it, he asked the company to take it down, and they did. Chappelle has no beef with Netflix over this—indeed, he points to their responsiveness to his concerns as more proof of how much better they are to work with than traditional networks and studios. Meanwhile, CBS All Access, HBO Max, and the Comedy Central app are all streaming the show.
Don’t take our word for it, though. Go watch Dave Chappelle explaing the whole situation during a recent stand-up set, as >posted to his Instagram page earlier today. He can tell this story—along with most others—a hell of a lot better than we can.
