Chelsea Handler on Shaking Up the Traditional Talk Show Format
It’s an all new beginning for funnywoman Chelsea Handler.
— -- It’s an all new beginning for funnywoman Chelsea Handler. And she wouldn’t have it any other way. Handler has teamed up with video-streaming giant Netflix to launch an all new talk show. They’re calling it simply “Chelsea.”
“I’m not saving lives but you want to entertain people,” Handler told ABC News. “I want to ask lots of questions and I want to get lots of answers. And I want to take people along for that ride.
"I don’t feel like I ever really went to college, mostly because I didn’t," Handler joked. "And so I’m using this opportunity as my college education paid for by Netflix."
Handler plans to switch things up with the new talk show, making it less traditional than her last hosting stint at the E! Network. There she sat at the helm of the late night talk show “Chelsea Lately” for seven years.
“That show was really focused on celebrity and gossip,” Handler, 41, told Peter Travers. “The company I was keeping was on a network where that was their bread and butter, was talking about celebrities, was the Kardashians, was gossip. And that’s the kind of show that was.
"So after doing that for many years -- it was a huge opportunity for me and I had a blast doing it -- but after a while, I wanted to broaden my horizons like any adult person," she said.
Handler added that she hopes most people will relate to her new approach of hosting and interviewing, "come along for the ride" and "get educated in a fun way."
“I want to ask questions that we all pretend we know the answers to and we don’t. I don’t know how a bill is passed. I’ve read about it time and time again. But I still don’t understand what the hell goes on,” said Handler.
“You’re not going to turn on my show and see me standing and doing a monologue and then having a guest, then having an actor, blah, blah, blah," she said.
"I’m done with that," Handler continued. "It’s not going to be a set show every single night. You’re not going to turn it on and say on 'This is when she does this.' It’s going to be different.”
“Chelsea” can be streamed on Netflix.
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