Chelsea Handler Plans to Leave E! and ‘Chelsea Lately’

As Chelsea Handler’s contract comes to an end this year, it is revealed that the talk-show host may be calling it quits. After eight years of hosting Chelsea Lately, Irving Azoff, Handler’s manager, has announced that the thirty-nine-year-old will be leaving her show.

“Chelsea intends to leave when her contract expires,” Azoff told The Hollywood Reporter, “She hired me to figure out her life after E! We have at least seven suitors and many ideas.”

While Handler’s complaints about the network over the years have clearly indicated the possibility of her leaving, E! is keeping a tight lip on the matter.

“Chelsea has nine months left on her contract and E! will not comment on the future of Chelsea Lately at this time,” an E! spokesperson commented.

With Handler’s New York Times best-seller, Uganda be Kidding Me, marking the success of her career, it is no wonder the host of Chelsea Lately has decided to leave E! behind. In addition to being in the middle of a tour holding more than 30 markets, Handler is scheduled to do her first ever stand-up special at Chicago’s Harris Theatre in June.

However, although she may be in her prime at the moment, Handler’s public disdain for the E! network may put her in a tough spot when looking for new work after her contract.

Handler even described E! as “a sad, sad place to live” on March 5th during an interview on Howard Stern’s radio show.

She further commented that, “They don’t know what they’re doing. They have no ideas. It’s a failure”

Comments like these can lead other “suitors” to be apprehensive of Handler in fear of the possibility she may bad mouth them when things don’t go her way.