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The state-of-the-art studio that housed The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien is getting a new late-night occupant. E!’s Chelsea Lately will move into the space, Studio 1 on the Universal lot, later this year, probably in the fourth quarter. Stage 1, named The Jack Benny Stage, has remained largely vacant since the quick demise of The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien as Jay Leno, who was brought back as host in March 2010, opted to stay at his old stomping grounds in Burbank.
When plans were announced for O’Brien to take over The Tonight Show, NBC spent a reported $50 million to transform Stage 1 — which housed The Jack Benny Show, the first TV show shot at Universal, as well as the original Knight Rider TV series — into a lavish talk show set custom-made to accommodate comedy skits, a band, and a large studio audience. (Chelsea Lately‘s studio audience is expected to double when the show moves into the new digs.) It is also near huge parking garages and major city thoroughfares.
The announcement, made during an E! luncheon at the TCA winter press tour (sans the Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien connection), comes less than two months after Handler signed a new $25 million deal with E! to continue as host and executive producer of Chelsea Lately through 2014 and develop and produce other shows through her company, Borderline Amazing Prods. In addition to Chelsea Lately, E! also hopes to use the new stage to test potential new talk shows, which may include some of the late-night companions to Chelsea Lately that Borderline Amazing has in development. Chelsea Lately has been a strong ratings performer, especially in the young demos. Last June, it beat O’Brien’s new TBS talk show in total viewers, adults 18-49 and adults 18-34. This is the first show of E!, formerly own by Comcast, to move to a facility owned by the NBC Universal side of the merged Comcast-NBCUni. Also at the luncheon, E! announced that Joan Rivers’ weekly show Fashion Police is expanding from a half-hour to an hour.
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it won’t make her funny.
I regularly find myself defending talented comedians when they’re the target for snarky criticism. It’s a tough gig and most successes are very deserving. But . . . Handler? Sorry, I just don’t get it.
The law of comedy entropy at work. Finally hit rock bottom.
It’s like wasting gourmet steak sauce on hamburger.
Good for Chelsea…but I cannot like her show anymore than I already do. I LOVE HER and her fellow comediennes!!!
That studio is waaaaay too big for a talk show. That was, I believe, one of the problems with Conan’s “Tonight Show”: it lacked any feeling of intimacy. It was like he was doing his show in some huge auditorium. His new studio is much more compact and that has a direct impact on the better quality of his current show. Same as it was with his old “Late Night” show in New York.
I just have a hard time believeing Chelsea Handler is goig to have much more success in that studio than Conan did.
That was the least of coco s tonight show woes. Please. Lol
Just because she isn’t your taste in comedy, she is the choice of many, many people, that doesn’t make her “rock bottom” or “hamburger.” I happen to love Chelsea, her show, and the vast majority of her revolving door of comedian panelists. I’m stoked she’s moving to a bigger home. I hope they also extend the show to an hour. Half hour round table, half hour guest. I love me some ‘Chelsea Lately.’
Those guys probably don’t even watch the shoe they are just news geeks.
There have always been loathsome and talentless people that somehow sneak through the vetting process and ring the bell of fame and fortune. But this Chelsea zero really takes the cake.
Is she purposely trying to be abrasive and unfunny? Her shows are so awful, her sycophants are so unappealing. What’s with that whiny red-headed dude? He’s criminally unfunny and it just goes downhill from there. It reminds me of SCTV’s version of bad comedy, except these morons actually think they’re funny.
We really need some new talent in this country. Ugh.
You really have nothing to worry about. I love Chelsea, glad her ratings are up and we’ll see how her pilots ans series on the broadcast networks are received in the next seasons, etc., however her comedy is not “broad” translation (cough) boring like Leno or dumbed down the way Letterman’s now is. I may have to take back this writing one day but I still don’t see her as broad appealing to a wide audience like the Tonight Show still tries to serve along with the demo. Of course, people used to say the same about Letterman. So she’s not your cup of tea her timing and instincts really are fantastic and she gets into a natural rhythm and conversation flow – that’s a talent. She can sense a panel an actor and a room. Most actors know what they’re going to get with her as well some like it, some do not — just like her sample viewers. Team Chelsea.
Duh- she’s already frickin hilarious.
She is awesome. Hopefully E! will consider expanding her series to an hour – it’s begging for that format change. Though, Chelsea Lately works in part because it’s fast paced, in your face, get in and get out in 30 minutes. Expanding by an hour may make that format and humor stale. Not sure. Might make an interesting experiment though I have heard in the past Handler is not fond of expanding to an hour – perhaps she’s changed her mind on this last go contract go around. Really enjoy the show and her humor. Keep up the good work.
P.S. — I bet Coco is pissed. LOL.
Looks like the wheels are in motion for Chelsea to take over for Leno.
Can’t wait to see Chelsea this Wednesday!
She’s worthy of the Leno timeslot
Will never happen.
Once Leno is gone I’ll start checking out the other NBC shows again. I’ve stayed away since the evil bastard pulled his trickery. I like Handler. She grows on you fast.
oh, and do I think it’s coincidence this move with Handler comes two weeks after Leno’s plummeting ratings dropped below Letterman’s? No, I don’t.
I think it has more to do with her sitcom premiering on NBC this week and wanting her closer to that production/studio.
Not sure why she needs this. While it will be good to have more audience seating, that stage seems too big for her show’s format. The small table, followed by the cozy two chairs with a screen in the middle, worked fine. Personally, I think the closer the host and guest sit, the better.
She probably doesn’t but who else has been using it? Leno wont go there, they tried. Probably saving E and NBC just a tad on production space and I suspect they’ll move Hanlders offices to the Universal lot if they hadn’t already done so.
Chelsea needs the space, she is great! She deserves the biggest Studio there is.You go girl.
Brenda
give Roy a hug from me.
I never understand the Chelsea hate. Between the best-selling books and the original show, she really is queen of late-night talk. Part of the appeal of her show was the amateurish-ness of it all, and I wonder if she can step up and make a slick show to match this fab production set. Will she be able to fill it up? I hope so!
They say it’s still haunted by the ghost of the Masturbating Bear….
Chelsea Handler and Andy Cohen should have a battle for who’s better at conning media outlets into thinking they matter.
Neither is funny, neither is charming, but they’ve proved extra-capable of tricking executives (oh wait, Andy Cohen is in charge of programming himself on Bravo) into thinking they are the stars of the moment.
So true! You hit the nail on the head. Wait until Thursday when the ratings are out for the NBC Happy Hour. I can’t see anyone wasting an hour watching Whitney or Are You There, Chelsea.
I find it amusing that, over five years, she’ll make half what they spent to rebuild the sound stage.
Also, how on earth does it cost $50 million to refurbish a sound stage?
I like the idea of Chelsea Handler, I think the concept is appealing and funny, but in practice I find her books limp and forced and her TV agonizing.
The CHELSEA LATELY format is close-up and intimate, a small-forum piece, and I don’t see how it thrives in the huge ex-Conan space without some major scaling changes. Like holding a boxing match in Yankee Stadium with the audience confined to the upper deck.
If it ain’t broke then don’t yada yada yada…
What is the fascination with this woman anyways? She seems to be nothing more than an airhead trying to be both vulgar and funny at the same time, but yet, she only resonates that with a core audience and yet NBCUNI feels fit to give her a huge deal and a new studio? Comcast sure is turning this boat around all-right…in reverse. But they had to do something with this 50 million dollar studio and didn’t think they would be stupid enough to tear it down. Her new show will definitely fail on NBC.
“Also, how on earth does it cost $50 million to refurbish a sound stage?”
Have unions do the work. Also, Chelsea Handler is crap. It’s like someone gave an old bar fly a TV show.
What bothers me is that no one ever talks about the clear connection between Conan’s Republican jokes and the demise of his show. If Leno wasn’t kissing the butts dof Republicans when they come on his show, he’d get the axe as well, as clearly he knows it. These days, if you make any jokes about Republicans, the Religious Right turns to their terrorism against advertisers and sadly their tactics work. I thought when we threw Bush out in 2008 we were past this. Now, it’s blame the black president for everything because, well, he’s black.
I liked her on her original show that was mostly filmed bits (“The Chelsea Handler Show”) and when she first started doing Chelsea Lately. She used to make herself the butt of a lot of jokes. Now it seems to be a nonstop stream of her telling her groveling comedians/sidekicks that they are gay or stupid or impotent.
nbc should recogize conan