Handler's manager says the actress/comedienne plans to leave E! when her contract expires at the end of the year.
- Mar 31, 2014
AceShowbiz - Chelsea Handler is going to end her E! show "Chelsea Lately" after more than six years. According to her manager Irving Azoff, the 39-year-old actress plans to leave the network and wrap up her late-night talk show when her contract expires at the end of the year.
"Chelsea intends to leave when her contract expires. She hired me to figure out her life after E! We have at least seven suitors and many ideas," Azoff tells The Hollywood Reporter. The plans include a radio presence and a possible new show on another network or digital service.
E! refuses to comment on the news, saying via a spokesperson, "Chelsea has nine months left on her contract and E! will not comment on the future of Chelsea Lately at this time."
Handler has made no secret about her dissatisfaction with the network. When appearing on Howard Stern's radio show earlier this month, she called E! "a sad, sad place to live ... They don't know what they're doing. They have no ideas. It's a failure."
Handler's reps at CAA have reportedly been setting meetings with companies including Sony Television, Lionsgate and FX to discuss her future, but a source says, "I don't know if anybody's going to pay her as much as E!"
A source at one of the companies listed to meet with Handler also says that her remark about E! will make potential suitors think twice. "When you see talent go after a network like that, you think one day it could be me," the source explains.
Handler, meanwhile, has hinted that whatever show she does next, she won't tone down her use of raunchy terms. She said, "I don't want to be on a regular network. 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."
