14 DAY TRIAL // Chelsea Handler’s E! show, Chelsea Lately, ended in 2014, after a more or less successful 7-year run. Depending on whom you ask, she either left because she wanted something better (her story) or because the network didn’t want to renew her contract because she was not delivering in the ratings (the unofficial line).
Chelsea is sticking to her side of the story, saying in a new interview cited by Us Weekly that, at one point, she’d grown so tired of her job at E! that she couldn’t wait to get out of it. The exact wording that she uses is that she was “much smarter” than the show, and that she stopped feeling challenged by it.
Sure, it was a great way to get a foot in the door, but the whole thing lost its appeal by the time she was in her 7th year. Plus, she adds, interviewing celebrities about stupid stuff was never her idea of smart.
Handler’s next job is in 2016, when she will get her own talk show. This one too will probably involve interviewing some celebrities, but she seems unaware of the irony in that.
The late Joan Rivers, who was also working for E! at the time of her death last August, was one of the biggest names to call out Handler for lying about the reason for her departure: she got the job by sleeping with the boss, and she had job security even though when the ratings were down.
She should have acted like a professional and handle her exit differently, Rivers blasted her in one interview on the topic. That also included bad-mouthing her previous employer in a bid to make herself look better.