12:17 pm PST 2/12/2021
by
Abid Rahman
The comedian revealed in an Instagram post on Thursday that Comedy Central had agreed to return its license and “ paid me millions of dollars. ”
Chapelle’s Show streams on Netflix again and this time it has Dave Chappelle’s blessing.
In an Instagram clip posted Thursday, Chappelle revealed that the Comedy Central show he created and left with bitterness returned to the streaming platform on Feb. 12, just over two months after it was pulled at his request.
In the clip, which appears to be derived from the comedian’s recent tour of Austin, Chappelle provides background on what led Netflix to pull Chappelle’s Show returned at the end of November last year. Speaking of the recent Washington DC uprising, Chappelle is all about people who need to know “where their power lies.” He summed up his dispute with Comedy Central and his demands that they pay him for all deals related to it Chappelle’s Show and then explained, “I know where my strength is.”
“I asked you to stop watching the show and thank God Almighty for you,” Chappelle said of his fans. “You made that show worthless, because without your eyes it is nothing.”
He added, “And when you stopped watching, they called me. And I got my name back and I got my license back and I got my show back and they paid me millions of dollars. Thank you very much.”
Chappelle then thanked Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, for “having the courage to show off his platform at the expense of his business just because I asked him to.” He also thanked ViacomCBS’s Chris McCarthy for “making up for the past” by completing the deal.
He ended the clip by saying, “After all these years, I can finally say to Comedy Central, ‘It was a pleasure to do business with you.”
Chappelle’s Show was streamed on Netflix in the US from November 1. In an 18-minute video of his stand-up released on November 24, the comedian talked about the awful contract he made at the start of Chappelle’s Show, which ran from 2003-06 on Comedy Central. “People think I’ve made a lot of money with it Chappelle’s Show‘, he said.’ When I left that show I never got paid. They didn’t have to pay me because I signed the contract. But is that correct? I found out that these people were streaming my work and they never had to ask or tell me. Completely legal because I signed the contract. But is that correct? I don’t think so either. “
He revealed he asked Netflix to pull the show, which they then did.
Chappelle’s Show was a breakthrough for Comedy Central and the comedian. After signing a reported $ 50 million deal ahead of the show’s third season, Chappelle quit the series, citing the stress of producing the show and his increasing discomfort with the material in the skits.