Chelsea Handler pulling plug on ‘Chelsea Lately’ after 8 Years
E! is going to have to find a new funny late night star. The channel’s current late night talk show host, Chelsea Handler, her sidekick Chuy, and their show Chelsea Lately will not be around much longer. Handler’s manager, Irving Azoff, reported that this year will be the last for the E! program, which airs weeknights at 11 PM EST. Azoff told The Hollywood Reporter that after Handler’s contract is up at the end of this year, she will end the show. Chelsea Lately has been on the the air for eight years and seasons, starting in 2007, and is one of the E! channel’s most popular programs.
“Chelsea intends to leave when her contract expires,” Azoff said. “She hired me to figure out her life after E! We have at least seven suitors and many ideas.”
Apparently, E! hasn’t been the easiest company to work for. Handler was open about her work frustrations while visiting The Howard Stern Show, stating that the network is “a sad, sad place to live,” and that “they don’t know what they’re doing. They have no ideas. It’s a failure.”
The comedienne’s show has introduced her stand-up comic friends to the nation as they discuss popular culture and current events at a round-table like discussion for the first part of each show. The second part consists of Handler interviewing celebrities, including A-listers and the biggest stars in Hollywood. She counts many of these stars as her close friends, including Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, and these ladies often drop by to kibitz and film skits with their bestie.
Handler’s book Uganda Be Kidding Me was released earlier this month and has been on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a week. She has authored several other popular books, including My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands, Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, and Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang. All of Handler’s books have made the New York Times Best Seller List, three reaching the number one spot.
The only female late-night host on TV also indicated that she wouldn’t mind doing another talk show — as long as it’s on her own terms, which are often raunchy, subversive, and always hilarious. “I don’t want to be on a regular network,” Handler told USA Today. “If I do a show, I want to get away with what I get away with. I use language because that’s how I am in real life.”
Handler has nine months left on her contract, so if you’re a regular viewer, begin the disappointing countdown now.
(Photo by Mike Windle/Getty Images)
