Streaming platform HBO Max will honor Dave Chappelle’s request to remove Chappelle’s Show from the streaming service.
TMZ reports that chief content officer of HBO and HBO Max Casey Bloys announced the move during the keynote conversation 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 said. “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.”
The announcement by HBO Max comes less than a month after Netflix removed the show from its platform. In a video posted to Instagram of one of his standup sets, Chappelle revealed that he does not receive any compensation when ViacomCBS license the show to streaming platforms because of the deal he signed when the show was made.
“I found out that these people were streaming my work, and they never had to ask me, or they never had to tell me,” Chappelle said in the clip. “Perfectly legal because I signed the contract. But is that right?”
In the same segment, the comedian talked about pitching the show to HBO, who rejected it at the time.
“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?’ 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?”
