Chappelle’s Show – Picture: Comedy Central
Chappelle’s Show has returned to Netflix unexpectedly today after having departed the service after a brief stint back in November 2020. Here’s a breakdown on the removal and why it’s back.
If you’re completely out of the loop on the situation, allow us to bring you up to speed.
Chappelle’s Show is a Comedy Central series that ran for three seasons and saw Dave Chappelle leave the show on bad terms with Viacom. The dispute has never been laid to rest and as a result, meant that Dave Chappelle was cut out of any financial dealings including when the show gets licensed to outlets like Netflix.
Netflix licensed the show from Viacom CBS back in November 2020 with all three seasons arriving on November 1st, 2020. Just a few weeks later, they departed at the request of Dave Chappelle who posted a video talking about the situation on Instagram under the title, Unforgiven.
Now, months later, the dispute appears to be resolved with Chappelle posting a new video yesterday called Redemption (embedded via YouTube below).
With the video (which predominantly discusses current events in the United States) it meant that seasons 1-3 (as confirmed by Entertainment Weekly) would be back on Netflix US as of February 12th, 2021.
Talking about the situation with Netflix, however, Chappelle said he was thankful to fans and to Netflix for helping resolve the situation and to stop watching while it was on Netflix saying:
“You made that show worthless because without your eyes, it’s nothing. And you stopped watching it. 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.”
While we don’t know the details on the deal, Chappelle said that Chris McCarthy from ViacomCBS, in particular, helped right the wrong.
As well as being back on Netflix, the show continues to be available on CBS All Access. Whether the show will now wind up on HBO Max and Hulu is yet to be seen.
Will Chappelle’s Show be on Netflix internationally?
The re-addition to Netflix US today did not see Chappelle’s Show join other Netflix regions. While it’s possible Netflix could still choose to license the show outside the US, it seems unlikely.
Of course, if that changes, we’ll let you know.
Beyond Chappelle’s Show, there’s a host of other Dave Chappelle content on Netflix right now. You can currently watch his various stand-up specials including Dave Chappelle from 2017, Equanimity & The Bird Revelation from 2017, Sticks & Stones from 2019. You can also see Dave in Def Comedy Jam 25 and him accepting the award at The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Will you be diving into Chappelle’s Show on Netflix now that it has been re-added? Let us know in the comments down below.
