Last Wednesday (30), Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, gave new praise to the comedy special The Closer by Dave Chappelle and stated that “we would do it again and again”. Launched by the platform at the end of last year, the special caused discomfort among company employees, who publicly manifested themselves, accusing the production of containing transphobic lines.
The statement was given by the executive at the conference DealBook Summit of The New York Timesduring an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Asked about the controversy, Reed reiterated his support for stand-up, demonstrated since the time of the scandal, when the CEO sent an internal email to employees in which he defended the special.
“We are just trying to be the most exciting entertainment company […] That special was one of the most fun to watch specials we’ve ever had. We would do it again and again”, he stated, further describing Chappelle as a very fun and provocative person.
Chappelle’s The Closer has been accused of transphobia
The Closer landed on Netflix on November 5, 2021 and, in its early days, caused complaints from company officials, who accused the special of containing transphobic lines.
Tara Fied, transgender engineer at Netflix, came to make a twitter thread in which he enumerated several pain points of the show. According to engineering, stand-up attacked the trans community and the validation of transgenderism itself.
A few days later, the engineer was suspended from the company🇧🇷 According to Netflix, the reasons were not related to the thread, as the employee would have tried to attend an executive meeting to which she had not been invited.
Although Fied was later reinstated on the staff, the controversies surrounding the special only increased.
Other trans employees at the company expressed their discomfort with the show, causing Sarandos to send an internal email in which he was understanding, but clarified that he would not take the stand-up off the air.
According to the CEO, “We do not allow titles on Netflix that are created to incite hatred or violence, and we do not believe The Closer crosses that line.”
Despite an attempt to stop some employees, two trans workers were suspended and ended up resigning from Netflix. Meanwhile, a third party was fired, according to streaming, for leaking confidential company information – a statement denied by the worker.
Chapelle has successful stand-up streaming
This isn’t the first time Dave Chappelle has collaborated with Netflix. Until the end of last year, he was the most watched comedian on the platform, according to Sarandos himself.
Sticks & Stonesanother of his productions for the company, is even considered one of the best shows on streaminghaving won two Emmys and a Grammy.
No wonder, their shows have very high costs.
According to the BloombergNetflix paid $24.1 million for The CloserWhile Stick & Stones cost $23.6 million. By way of comparison, Round 6a nine-episode series that had the best debut in the history of the platform, cost the company US$ 21.4 million.
https://tecnoblog.net/noticias/2022/12/01/stand-up-da-netflix-acusado-de-transfobia-e-elogiado-por-ceo-fariamos-de-novo/