Chelsea Handler, who will be wrapping up her late night show Chelsea Lately on E! after a seven year-run this August, will be heading to Netflix.
Netflix made the announcement Thursday after months of speculation. The video streaming site hopes to create a late-night style talk show with Handler in 2016, as well as a standup special and four docu-comedy specials to premiere before the talk show’s debut. The show will be similar to her current one on E! in which she will interview celebrity guests and offer her opinions on daily news topics. It is uncertain how frequently the episodes of her show will be released.
“The Internet has disrupted many of the conventions of traditional television and together with Chelsea Handler, Netflix is looking forward to reimagining the late night talk show for the on-demand generation, starting with the late night part…” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer.
Back in March, Handler expressed how discontent she was with E! in an interview with Howard Stern and stated she would like to work with Netflix.
“If I was going to continue working in this industry, I knew I had to do something outside the box to keep myself interested,” she said in a statement released today. “I wanted to sit with the cool kids at lunch so I approached Netflix to make sure they were as cool as I thought they were, and when I confirmed my suspicions, like with any other future lover, I made my move. I’m more excited than I’ve been in awhile, and the team at Netflix is the most forward thinking, alert group I’ve sat down with in ages. No offense to the Shahs of Sunset.”
One of the comedy specials that Netflix will release is a one-hour taping of her June 20th stop in Chicago for her Uganda Be Kidding Me tour. It will debut on Netflix on Oct. 10. She will film the docu-comedy specials in 2015, which will “[feature] her efforts to gain a better understanding of a variety of subjects ranging from NASCAR to politics and from Silicon Valley to the NBA draft,” Netflix stated.
