Netflix has just announced an exclusive deal with the beautiful and brilliant Chelsea Handler for an upcoming series of talk show programming featuring the comedienne herself.
Both the network and Handler are keeping mum about how the show will be formatted, but they did explicitly state that it will “still encompass Chelsea’s unfiltered opinions on topical entertainment and cultural issues, as well as her signature guest interviews.” That said, releasing a season at a time (as Netflix has done with House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black) doesn’t necessarily make sense.
Handler’s current talk show, Chelsea Lately, is coming to a close in late August. She has expressed discontent with her network, E!, for quite a while now.
Here’s what she had to say:
If I was going to continue working in this industry, I knew I had to do something outside the box to keep myself interested,” Handler says in a statement. “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.
Indeed, Netflix definitely represents one of the kids at the cool table. However, the company is under pressure to continue pumping out original and exclusive content to keep long-time users, sick of watching HIMYM over and over again, from growing disinterested. An exclusive deal with a with a beloved nightly talk show host (the only female to have a late night show that airs daily, btw) offers a new stream of return viewers on a regular basis.
And the talk show, set to debut in 2016, isn’t the whole of it.
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The deal begins with a standup comedy special, based on her current Uganda Be Killing Me tour, which will air in October. Throughout 2015, Netflix will develop and release four “docu-comedy specials,” which will center around Handler’s own research strategy concerning major issues “from NASCAR to politics to Silicon Valley to the NBA draft.”
Then, in 2016, she’ll return to her talk show format on a brand new network, Netflix.
