HBO Max is honoring a request by Dave Chappelle to remove “Chappelle’s Show” from the streaming service at the end of this year.
Casey Bloys, chief content officer of HBO and HBO Max, made the revelation during the keynote conversation on day one of Variety’s Virtual FYCFest.
“We had a conversation with Dave. I won’t get into it, but it’s very clear that it’s a very unique and specific and emotional issue he’s got,” Bloys told Variety‘s executive editor of TV, Daniel Holloway. “So at the end of the year, at the end of this year, December 31st, we’re going to honor his request and take the show down.”
Chappelle previously got Netflix to take the show which bears his name down as well. In a lengthy video of one of his standup sets posted to Instagram, Chappelle explained that due to the nature of the deal he signed years ago when the show was made, he does not receive any compensation when ViacomCBS licenses it to streamers like HBO Max or Netflix.
“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.”
In the same video, Chappelle told the story of how HBO rejected his pitch for the show when he brought it to them before Comedy Central.
“They said, literally, ‘What do we need you for?’ That’s what they told me as they kicked me out of the office, ‘What do we need you for?’” he said. “And here we are all these years later and they’re streaming the very show I was pitching to them. So I’m asking them, what do you need me for?”