Business Law Issue On “Anderson Cooper 360”
Anderson Cooper 360° is program aired by CCN, which is hosted by renowned American Journalist Anderson Cooper. The program provides a platform for airing views from different perspectives. This paper focuses on the “Dave Chappelle on Anderson Cooper 360” episode whereby Anderson interviews Dave An American comedian to determine why he left Chappelle’s Show. In the paper, a law related-issue from a business point of view on the episode of “Anderson cooper 360” is addressed.
In a nutshell, nearly a decade age, Dave walked away from one of the famous sketch comedy series central at the epitome of its popularity. In addition, he left the show when he had signed a $50 million contract offer with comedy central, an offer that was attractive (CNN, 2014) He left the few months after he become part of the business contract for its 3rd and 4th episodes. Dave stunned Comedy Central, his staff, and fans a mid-production and headed to South Africa for two weeks (CNN, 2014). He later returned to Ohio, his home town, and later resumed stand-up comedy independently. The emerging legal issue in this episode from a business point of view is breach of contract.
A breach of contract exist place when one of the parties fails to honor their part of the agreement. After an offer has been made by the offerer and accepted by the offeree, then an agreement is reached and a contract is entered. Failure to meet the demands of the offer results to an automatic breach of contract is realized. From the “Dave Chappelle on Anderson Cooper 360” episode, Dave signed a contract with Comedy Central, and failed to fulfill it by leaving production in the halfway. From a business point of view, such an act resulted to losses to Comedy Central which was expecting to gain from the show. On the other hand, Dave did not receive the full value of the contract, which implies that payments were possibly not made. Additionally, he terminated the contract without any notice, because he just left when the show was halfway and left his fans in a state of limbo.
Based on the interview with Anderson Cooper, Dave admitted that what he did was legally unethical, but noted that he admitted that he was not working away from the money offered by Comedy central, but from circumstances. He also admitted that he was afraid that he by signing the contract he was being controlled and not allowed to expand and this stressed him and he considered walking out of the show. In this perspective, Dave was affected businesswise because of the choice he made since he no rich as he could have, and his integrity was affected. Moreover, because of not fulfilling the contract, lawsuit for nearly $1 million in damages as well as royalties was filled by one of his employees’. Therefore, walking away from the contract has attracted financial problems to the comedian, which from a business perspective was awful.
In conclusion, the paper has explored a legal issue in “Dave Chappelle on Anderson Cooper 360” episode. The identified legal issue is breach of contract by Dave amidst production of 3rd and 4th shows. The respective setbacks linked to the breach were damaged reputation, lawsuits, and financial losses.
References List
CNN. (2014) Dave Chappelle On Anderson Cooper 360.[Video File]: Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96_nRIJgElc