14 DAY TRIAL // A few months ago, fresh on the controversy around Giuliana Rancic’s racially offensive comments about Zendaya Coleman’s dreadlocks, rumor had it that E! might not ask her to come back to the Fashion Police when it returned from hiatus. She hinted as much in a later interview, in which she said her future with E! wasn’t set in stone.
It turns out that the plan was to move house after all, though not altogether just yet. In a statement to the press, Rancic says that she’s leaving E! News, though she will continue to be on Fashion Police and cover all the big red carpets for the network.
“I am excited to not only continue as host of two major franchises on E! but also executive produce the aspirational new show Rich in Faith for Oxygen as well as take my wine and clothing lines to the next level,” she says, by means of explaining her decision to part ways with her longtime “family” over at E! News.
It’s very likely that Giuliana was prompted to seek other opportunities after she saw the way E! let her take the fall for the aforementioned Zendaya comments, which were edited to make her appear as if she was mocking her.
In reality, Rancic had only read a joke writers had prepared for her, which was then butchered in post-production to make her look like a racist. E! is yet to confirm this, even though pretty much everyone on set did, thus letting her come across as the bad guy.
Fashion Police was already in serious trouble when this happened, mostly because they wanted it to continue after Joan Rivers’ death. It’s now on hiatus so that producers can come up with a new formula.