David Spade was shocked by Comedy Central's Lights Out cancelation, but he's been able to essentially re-create it with The Netflix Afterparty

Los Angeles Times

“Honestly, I was kind of shocked,” Spade tells the Los Angeles Times of his show's cancelation one month into the pandemic last April. “They said we were gonna shut down fully and told me around the same time it was in Deadline. We hadn’t cleaned out our offices. We had no idea.” Spade blamed Comedy Central's new boss, Chris McCarthy, for wanting "to cut anything that’s kind of expensive and go kind of cheap. It wasn’t that (expensive), but I think he’s talking, like, really inexpensive. I don’t know if he saw one show. I think that’s how tough the biz is, where they say, ‘How much is that one? OK, get rid of it.’ So, I understand.” Fortunately, Spade had a booster in Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO of Netflix, who visited the Lights Out set several times. Spade, who already stars in a number of Netflix movies, was offered the chance to a similar show for the streaming service, resulting in the recently launched The Netflix Afterparty, co-hosted with Fortune Feimster and London Hughes. In the Times interview, Spade was also asked about the sexual misconduct allegations against Chris D'Elia, Bryan Callen and Jeff Ross. "It is a touchy subject," said Spade. "I think everyone’s scared to speak up and be canceled or say the wrong thing. If guys are doing something like that right now, get rid of them. If you’re still f— around and treating people super (poorly) or attacking women or saying 'suck my d— and I’ll give you a job' and don’t think there’s any repercussions? This isn’t Mad Men anymore."