When Dave Chappelle signed the contract for “Chappelle’s Show,” there were a few things he didn’t know. First, that the show would eventually be sold to ViacomCBS. And second, that they could then sell it to any streaming service or network, and he would get no money from it. Netflix has now taken down the show from their streaming network in order to support Chappelle.
Netflix has been contracted with Chappelle for 4 years, for his stand up specials. “Chappelle’s Show” went live on Netflix Nov. 1st and since then he’s been very vocal about how it’s wrong to watch it when he gets no money from it. It’s his baby, he was the co-creator, executive producer and star of Chappelle’s Show which ran from 2003-2006 on Comedy Central.
Usually companies that license a program pay the seller who then has to compensate the creatives on the show. But in this case Chappelle was not getting anything from ViacomCBS for his work.
He talked about it briefly when he hosted the last Saturday Night Live. Talking about how his grandfather would have said he got bought and sold more than he did.
In a video posted to his Instagram titled “Unforgiven,” Dave talks about how he asked Netflix to take down the show.
“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. 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 fuck 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 fucking streaming that show you’re fencing stolen goods.”
