Chelsea Handler says Peace Out to E! after the season is up

Christina Drill
March 31, 2014

Chelsea Handler is having a pretty darn good year. Her latest book, Uganda Be Kidding Me, has been sitting at the top of the New York Times Bestsellers List for the past week-- her first book to do so. She is also about to embark on a 30-city comedy tour, which will yield her first stand-up comedy special, that will be aired on cable in the fall. Cha-ching!

Chelsea has spoken publicly before of her disappointment with working on E!'s network, exclaiming on the Howard Stern show that it was a "sad, sad place to live." Chelsea's new manager Irving Azoff told The Hollywood Reporter: "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.”

E! has also confirmed that Chelsea will be leaving the network after this season of Chelsea Lately is over: "Chelsea has nine months left on her contract and E! will not comment on the future of Chelsea Lately at this time."

Handler's talk show "Chelsea Lately" has been running for nine seasons and grossed $9 million last year, but viewership has gone down 40% since 2010.

“They don’t know what they’re doing. They have no ideas. It’s a failure," Chelsea has said about the network whose highest grossing shows are Kardashian-based. When Chelsea said this on-air people figured it was her way of making E! raise her salary, but apparently no such thing will be happening. Chelsea is determined to leave the network after the season is over.

When asked by Stern what kind of network she was looking for, she guessed a circuit like Netflix would be best-- her X-rated humor, she understands, is a little too for broadcast television.

It seems like Azoff is not exaggerating when he says "seven potential suitors"-- Handler is apparently in talks with a variety of production houses, including FX, Lionsgate, and Sony. It is debatable whether or not other networks will be paying Chelsea as much as E! is, but that's what managers are for! To negotiate! Get it girl!