In a recent interview, Chelsea Handler said that she misses hosting late-night shows, and that she is ready to return, but that it has to be joyful, as everything is “white and old and boring.”
As Handler is not interested in a traditional format for her show, she said that she is eying the Bill Maher model as a possibility.
“It doesn’t have to be five nights a week. Ideally, it would be once a week. But it depends. Nobody gives a shit about watching celebrities be interviewed over and over again every night. They care about the monologue,” said Handler during the interview.
She is thinking about how her show would be different, by saying: “It has to be joyful. Everything is white and old and boring.” But before making these comments, she talked about a reboot of “Chelsea Lately” that she would call “Chelsea Later,” which she envisions as a more elevated version of the original, as reported on Yahoo.
“Rather than just focus on gossip and Lindsay Lohan, it has to be a broader, wider spectrum of topics,” said Handler.
Handler will guest host on “The Daily Show,” in February, as she will be filling in for Trevor Noah, who announced his departure after seven years.
The long-tenured host of “The Tonight Show” on NBC, Jimmy Fallon says that he can “definitely see room for a female voice in late night comedy.”
“It was Chelsea’s choice to leave. She wanted to do other things. And she did. And she did them well. I think the audience is still there for her,” said Fallon.
Fallon praised Handler even more as he calls her “effortlessly funny and honest” and says “she is relatable, she is smart and she knows how to land a joke.”
“As a father of two intelligent, creative and curious girls, I think there should be more women in as many places as possible,” he added.
And Handler cannot agree more with that, as she said: “I need to get back in because where are the women? Every head of every network should be ashamed that they haven’t given a female a talk show.”
“The fact that Samantha Bee is no longer on the air is unacceptable to me,” she added.
Only Amber Ruffin (on Peacock) and Ziwe (on Showtime) helm their own shows among female hosts, after TBS canceled “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” over the summer.
And Noah’s “Daily Show” departure at Comedy Central is not the only departure that will happen soon, as James Corden is leaving his “Late Late Show” on CBS next year.
So Handler is aware that there’s room for at least two new faces in late night shows.
“I don’t know if they’ve reached out to us, but I’ve had conversations with my team about both of those situations,” said Handler.
“James Corden’s show is like 12:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m., so that doesn’t really interest me. I definitely would be open to talking about the Trevor Noah slot. I don’t know what their plans for it are, or if they’ve already chosen somebody who’s on the show,” she said.
But she says that it “doesn’t look optimistic,” as she is looking at the late-night landscape.
“Talk shows are a dying art, and there has to be a new iteration of them. They’re not fresh. They’re stale. I don’t know what the answer is. But I’m definitely willing to be part of the solution,” said Handler.