Handler: 'Change is needed'

Chelsea Handler
Chelsea Handler

Chelsea Handler is the former host of Chelsea Lately, which aired on E! The questions and answers below have been edited and condensed.

Q: What do you make of all the internal -- and sometimes external -- soul-searching that's happening right now in late night? Is this a bad thing for the genre?

A: Change is needed in every medium at a certain point. Sitting behind the desk isn't the newest thing anymore. Jimmy Fallon, he's a singer and a dancer, and that's not an easy thing to compete with. A lot of people can't sing and dance, and are sitting behind their desks going, "Oh, God, I have to do this now? It's not bad enough I have to pay attention during every interview, but now I have to actually get up and move my body?"

Q: How does this affect how you're thinking about the talk show you're planning to do for Netflix next year?

A: I think the climate is so ripe to do something interesting and original. You have to switch things up, and you have to make it compelling. Take elements from things you personally like. I can have all the elements I want, without any set format. I can make it more serious. I can make it silly. That was my reason for not taking a job at a network, is that I don't want to have a set format like that.

Q: So your show could change quite a bit from night to night, or maybe there won't necessarily be a new show every night?

A: It could be 35 minutes one night, or it could be 65 minutes. We might do three episodes in a week. There's a staleness with being on TV every single night and having the same format every single night. I can't have a set pattern.

Q: Do people roll their eyes when you make these kinds of suggestions?

A: People can roll their eyes all they want at me. Nobody's rolling their eyes more than I am.

Q: How is it that, in the year 2015, there still isn't a late-night show on broadcast television that is hosted by a woman?

A: I was in a position where that was a possibility. It's an option, for women, if you get to the place where you can prove yourself as a late-night performer. It's not necessarily a job that most women find attractive. You're at the same show every single day. And I'm sure there are women that want to do it. I don't love the idea that, oh, no woman's going to get this job. You could get that job. You can. If you really want that job, you can get it. I didn't want it.

Style on 05/19/2015

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