Pete Davidson Explains Why He Suddenly Abandoned His TV Show

Pete Davidson is opening up about his personal life in the past few years.

On an interview with The Breakfast Club, the SNL discussed his status as a tabloid fixture in the past few years and his struggles with sobriety. He also discussed when he was in “trouble” with NBCUniversal after his semi-autobiographical comedy series Bupkis was cancelled on Peacock after one season.

During the interview, Davidson revealed that he chose to end the show early.

“I canceled Bupkis and I got in trouble for it cause I didn’t—I love that show, I loved doing Bupkis, I had a blast, thank you [host Charlamagne tha God] for being in it,” he said. “It just got to a point where I got really tired of my whole career just being my personal life, and living through that is sort of traumatic—not to be lame—but it’s traumatic to live in your own crap all the time.”

The actor said that he wrote his own storylines he was “comfortable” with, but other collaborators wanted to take the show in a different direction.

“This new person came and was like: ‘I think Pete should be banging Martha Stewart this season, I think Pete should have more mental issues.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, but I wouldn’t do that,’” he said. “And they were like, ‘Well, Pete the character [would].’ And I was like, ‘I can’t do this.’ I was like, if I want any shot in being in real movies or being seen a certain way, I can’t just play myself all the time and be this sack.”

He said that NBC didn’t “blacklist” him over the decision, noting that he’s “cool” with studio heads, but the experience definitely “did kind of open my eyes where it’s just like, ‘Oh, no one actually cares about you.’ Studios, networks — they don’t really care about you. They want you to do the thing, which I get. Now it’s all good, but there was a time where it wasn’t.”

“They were not pleased. Have you seen me in any NBCUniversal [project since]? They were upset. I cost people jobs and I took care of the writers’ room and anyone who didn’t get paid that needed to, I took care of it—which also hurt,” Davidson continued. “But, it’s funny, you work for a company for over a decade—I’m pretty sure I brought in a lot of money, worked hard on that show, was a good boy, like promoting [it] and whatnot. It made me realize a lot about the business, like hey, I’m probably gonna die if I have to keep doing this and that’s a problem.”