'Fashion Police' Returns With New Segment Dedicated to Joan Rivers
The show returns with Melissa Rivers but Joan Rivers remains a part of it.
— -- It's as if Joan Rivers never left.
On Monday night's return of "Fashion Police," the first show since March, the team tackled Sunday night's VMA Awards, but the late comedian was never far from their minds.
Daughter Melissa Rivers, who was stepping into her mother's shoes, introduced a new segment called "What Would Joan Say," in which panelists guess what the late star would have said about a celebrity's red carpet looks.
"Honestly, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t personally see something and think, 'What would my mom say about this?'" Rivers said about the show's original host, who died unexpectedly last September at the age of 81.
First target was one of Joan's favorites, Justin Bieber.
After soliciting comments from fellow hosts Giuliana Rancic and Brad Goreski and celebrity guests NeNe Leakes and Margaret Cho, Rivers then asked fans to tweet their best guesses with the hashtag "#WWJS" for a chance to have their tweets read on next week's show.
Rivers opened the show on her knees, pretending to clean the set with a lint roller.
"Hi, yeah, it's been a little bit of a crazy year around here, and, well, I'm still cleaning up messes. But the good news is, 'Fashion Police' is back," Rivers said, referring to some of the drama surrounding the show since the comedian's death.
Later, Rivers choked back tears while commenting on Miley Cyrus' barely-there Versace dress.
"When Miley walked on the red carpet, I gotta tell you, it made me so happy," Rivers said. "It was like a burst of energy. And it felt like it was like a gift from my mom for today that we had something so good to talk about."
Choking up, she called the Versace outfit "fabulous insanity."
The show has had a few bumps since Joan's death.
Kathy Griffin originally took Joan's seat, but left the show after Rancic's controversial comments about actress Zendaya's dreadlocks at the Oscars. Panelist Kelly Osbourne exited in February over the same issue, though she tweeted Rivers after Monday's show to congratulate her.
Any potential bad blood was clearly behind them, as Rivers, who is also executive producer of "Fashion Police," congratulated Osbourne on hosting the VMA's pre-show red carpet.