Fresh off his stint as host of “Saturday Night Live,” Dave Chappelle appears to be finally ready to give the people what they want.
Netflix announced Monday that the company has ordered up three new Chappelle comedy specials.
“Dave Chappelle is a legendary voice in comedy — searing, vital, and now more than ever, essential,” Lisa Nishimura, Netflix’s vice president of original documentary and comedy, said in a statement issued Monday. “Dave’s three new specials promise to be some of the most anticipated events in comedy.”
The shows ― one of which will reportedly be a Netflix original special, and two of which will come from past performances at Austin City Limits Live and the Hollywood Palladium ― will constitute his first TV specials in 12 years, after the comedian largely disappeared from the public eye at the height of his celebrity. The two already-recorded specials will be released simultaneously in 2017.
The news comes just over a month after Netflix announced that it had ordered two specials from Chris Rock, and the company will reportedly pay Rock a total of $40 million. The dollar amount shocked the comedy world when it was first announced, but it is indicative of a mission that regards original programming as vital to future success. The company announced in October that it would spend $6 billion in 2017 on content, more than NBC and CBS.
Netflix has also released comedy specials by comedians including Aziz Ansari and Patton Oswalt, the latter of which earned an Emmy this year.
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