Chelsea Lately

Chelsea Lately
Genre	Talk show
Written by	Heather McDonald Sarah Colonna Guy Branum Steve Marmalstein Bradley Wollack Chris Franjola Chelsea Handler
Presented by	Chelsea Handler Chuy Bravo
Narrated by	Mike Rock
Theme music composer	Doug Deangelis
Country of origin	United States
Original language
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	522 (as of May 20, 2010)
Production
Executive producers	Chelsea Handler Tom Brunelle
Camera setup	Multiple-camera setup
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production company	Borderline Amazing Productions
Original release
Network	E!
Release	July 16, 2007 (2007-07-16) – present
Related
The Chelsea Handler Show

Chelsea Lately is an American late night comedy talk show hosted by comedian Chelsea Handler on E!. The show debuted on July 16, 2007, and is produced by Handler's production company, Borderline Amazing Productions. It is taped in Los Angeles, California. In March 2009, it was announced that the show's run has been extended through 2012.

In American markets the show airs at 11:00 p.m. but is recorded at 3:30 p.m., usually the same day. Starting on May 18, 2009, the show moved to taping with new widescreen cameras and is currently presented in high-definition, although this version is only up-converted from the standard-definition feed.

Handler was previously the host of The Chelsea Handler Show, a short-lived sketch comedy show that also aired on E!.

History

Handler was approached to host her own late night talk show after the success and popularity the sketch comedy show The Chelsea Handler Show. Handler stated she was skeptical of the idea of her own show.

Chelsea Lately premiered on July 17, 2007 at 11:30PM (eastern/pacific), in the series premiere, Handler discusses female "happy endings," the most annoying celebrity couples, reality television, and more. She also talks with guest Steve-O, takes audience questions, and plays "Who Would You Rather Have Sex With?" with people on the LA streets.

On April 13, 2010, the show celebrated its 500th episode.

The show has been renewed to 2012. The show starts at 11:00PM (eastern/pacific) before popular other late night shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon among others.

Format

File:Chelsea lately australia1.jpg

Handler and the round table regulars of her staff waving at the audience in Sydney, Australia.

Chelsea Lately is presented in a half-hour format, and is broadcast Monday to Thursday at 11:00 p.m. The show opens with a short monologue by Handler. There is usually a panel of three comedians, actors, etc. who discuss the goings on in pop culture on what Handler refers to as the "round table".

Round table regulars include Heather McDonald, John Caparulo, Jen Kirkman, Loni Love, Brody Stevens, Arden Myrin, Natasha Leggero, Whitney Cummings, Kevin Hart, T. J. Miller, George Wallace, Conor Knighton, Guy Branum, Jo Koy, Ross Mathews, Josh Wolf, Chris Franjola, Michael Yo, Lavell Crawford, Chris Hardwick, Brad Wollack, Gary Valentine, Sarah Colonna, Hyla Matthews, Randy and Jason Sklar, Ben Gleib, Billy Gardell, and Bobby Lee.

Handler has an assistant, Chuy Bravo, who sits across from the round table, often interviewing the studio audience and participating alongside Handler in video segments for the show.

Handler is known to have displayed a dislike for celebrities Zac Efron, Tori Spelling, Tyra Banks, Jonas Brothers, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Madonna, Amy Winehouse, John Mayer, Melissa Rivers, Joan Rivers, Joey Fatone, Jeremy Piven, Kim Catrall, Megan Fox, Kanye West, Sean Penn, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, David Hasselhoff, Billy Bob Thornton, Shannon Doherty, Lindsay Lohan, Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt, will.i.am, Nadya Suleman, Beyonce, Heather Mills and Johnny Weir. In mid-2009, she stated that she would no longer refer to Spencer Pratt or Heidi Montag by name, and instead calls them "Herpes 1" and "Herpes 2." Sometimes, however, celebrities who she often jokes about appear on the show and are credited for "being a good sport", such as Lisa Rinna, Aubrey O'Day, Michael Lohan, Denise Richards, Brooke Shields, Antonio Sabato, Jr., and Daisy de la Hoya (the last of whom Handler had once stated she never wanted to see again until she was booked as a guest on the show).

Talent

Handler's assistant, Chuy Bravo participates in many of Chelsea Lately segments and sketches. He usually has a starring role or costars with Chelsea. Others who are in these popular sketches include round table regulars.

There have been occasional in-set performances. These include Ray J performing his hit song "Sexy Can I" and Natasha Bedingfield performing "Pocketful of Sunshine".

There have also been animals brought in on set when Handler interviewed Animal Planet personality Dave Salmoni and Australian park ranger Stacey Thomson. In both instances, Handler reacted in fear to the reptiles both guests brought on the show, which included a Burmese python and a juvenile saltwater crocodile.

Episode structure

The show opens cold and Handler performs a short stand-up monologue. The routine is usually focused on a topic from pop culture or current events, and may include a video clip or other visual aid. Over the opening credits, the announcer presents the topics of discussion, as well as the show's guest. After the open, Handler will introduce the round table panel of three people, usually comedians, who discuss topics from popular culture. After the round table ends, if there is a sketch in the episode it plays before the interview. Then, Handler interviews celebrity guests for about six minutes each show. The show closes with another monologue, where Handler delivers a one-liner or story, and presents small segments like "Fat Baby," with pictures for comedic value. The show ends with Handler and Bravo interacting with the audience.

Comedic sketches

Chelsea Lately has various recurring comedic segments that follow the round table and precede the guest interview, or are incorporated into Handler's opening monologue.

Regular segments

• "Lately Lexicon" is a sketch to explain jargon that appears regularly on the show, such as "hot pocket," "shadoobie," "Hoff-tastic," and "coslopus". These words are common for Handler to say. She uses these words in the place of words that would need censorship.
• "Lately, I've Been Thinking" is an absurdist parody of a public service announcement, presented by Handler. She speaks of a new topic in pop culture and makes funny, unusual comments of the topic and gives her advice on it. There has been a segment of this with Handler saying she has been thinking of the many people giving unneeded advice about her dog, Chunk.
• "Judge Lately" is a parody of Judge Judy and similar shows. Handler presides over cases presenting ordinary problems in a comedic light. Chuy Bravo appears as the bailiff and Jen Kirkman as the court reporter. Handler usually pokes fun at those in court and solves the trial with unusual solutions.
• "Dr. Lately" is a parody of medical shows. Handler and Bravo talk to a patient about an odd medical problem, such as a woman who "farted from the ear," and present an unusual diagnosis and pokes fun at their dilemma. Handler's assistant acts as her nurse in this sketch.
• "Detective Lately" is a parody of detective shows where Chelsea and Chuy talk to a suspect or victim with Chelsea giving no help, and sometimes even being the one who started the problem.In the sketch, Handler usually shouts "Damn It!" for no apparent reason. Handler's assistant usually sits beside her and also turns the victims into the perpetrator.
• "Unlicensed Entertainment Therapist" is a sketch where Handler interviews a client about a problem they have and attempts to help by using tactics involving celebrities with the same problems.
• "Chelsea's Blessing" is a graphic card which appears during the round table when Handler expresses enthusiasm over a particular story and gives her blessing to the people in the particular topic.
• "Staff Intervention" is a parody of a show on A&E. It features Handler, Chuy Bravo, and a staff member who is having a particular problem. A mediator, Lillian Glass attempts the solution to that certain problem.
• "Staff Book Club" is a segment were staff of Chelsea Lately gathers and tries to discuss a book they are reading but they usually veer off topic.
• "Faculty Review" is a segment were Chelsea interviews a staff member and discusses their problems and tries to find the cause of it. She tells them what they are doing wrong and then at the end a letter that starts with their problem comes up. "Example": D is for Drunk and Disorderly.
• The show also features parodies of other E! shows such as Keeping up with the Kardashians and Living Lohan.

Former segments

• "Chelsea's Advice Box." Chelsea sets up an advice box in some random location and "helps" people with their problems.
• "Single Staffers." A dating segment for members of the Chelsea Lately staff. Chuy would appear in a Cupid costume. The "single staffers" would announce their MySpace address at the end of the segment.
• "Deep Inside Hollywood." A parody of entertainment news shows such as Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood.

Impersonations and characters

Impersonations and skit characters that are done by Handler are usually people or characters that receive a large amount of fame or appear in pop culture an large amount of time. Such impersonated characters include Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan among others. These characters are used in sketches and are used to put emphasis on how Handler thinks celebrities are fake and how stupid they are.

In most sketches using impersonated characters Chelsea Handler's assistant, Chuy Bravo also impersonates a particular character. The most frequent character Chuy Bravo has impersonated was Ryan Seacrest. In many sketches, Bravo wears a blond wig and a blazer and he is declared Ryan Seacrest probably pertaining to Seacrest's short and small stature.

Less frequent and one-time impersonations include Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, The Real Housewives of Orange County among others.

Staff members have also impersonated celebrities. Chris Franjola impersonated the host from The Real Housewives reunion spoof. Heather McDonald spoofed Amy Winehouse and Miley Cyrus among other celebrities.

Ratings

Chelsea Lately averages 900,000 viewers per episode and attracts more women aged 18 to 34 than Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and Last Call with Carson Daly.

Chelsea Lately's highest-rated episode garnered 1.3 million viewers—the December 16, 2009 episode featuring singer Adam Lambert.

Production notes

Theme song

The theme song was composed by the Chelsea Lately composer, Doug Deangelis. The theme is played in the opening credits while the announcer is saying the upcoming topics in the episode and the celebrity guest. It is also played at the end of each episode when Handler and Bravo interact with the studio audience.

Set

The Chelsea Lately set has gone through various cosmetic changes. The floor of the stage has been turned black and throughout the stage there is more purple to go with scheme of the entire show. In older episodes there was brick around the entrance, leading to where the guest stars walk out to be interviewed by Handler. Also, the background mural behind where Handler and the guests of the round table sit has been changed to a city, presumably Los Angeles. In the newer episodes the round table has been made larger. A blue neon light was added above the scrolling Chelsea Lately logo and above the guest entrance. The lighting of the set has been darkened to enhance these changes.

These changes were presumably made to change the image of Chelsea Lately, as they happened within a month of the show's moving to its new timeslot in early 2009. The only thing that remains of the new redesigned Chelsea Lately set is the show's large scrolling logo behind where Handler interviews her guests and the plasma with the Chelsea Lately logo next to where the guest entrance is located.

On May 17, 2010 Chelsea Lately moved to a new expanded set and new lighting.

Locations

• Chelsea Lately is taped in Los Angeles on Olympic Blvd at Media Center Studios Stage 3. The original set used was also used on a G4 show but was then transformed into the Chelsea Lately set.

Crew

Some Chelsea Lately staff are comedians and are round table regulars. These staffers include Brad Wollack, Chris Franjola, Heather McDonald, Guy Branum and Sarah Colonna. Other round table regulars do not work on Chelsea Lately. These include Loni Love, Josh Wolf, Jo Koy, Natasha Leggero, Whitney Cummings, and Ross Mathews.

The show's announcers are Mike Rock and Drew Bell.

On June 3, 2010, Handler announced that writer and round table regular Jen Kirkman was leaving the show to join the writing staff for NBC's Perfect Couples, and a video montage was shown of her memorable moments on the show. Christina Pazsitzky was announced as her replacement on June 10, 2010.

Specials

Comedians of Chelsea Lately

File:Comedians of Chelsea Lately.jpg

An advertisement for The Comedians Of Chelsea Lately.

A special titled Comedians of Chelsea Lately premiered on August 14, 2009 and lasted four weeks. The special consisted of Chelsea Lately round-table regulars such as Loni Love, Jo Koy and among others performing their comedy stand up routines. The stand up routines lasted for about 6 to 9 minutes in length.The first airing of the special had round-table regulars Guy Branum, Sarah Colonna and Chris Franjola performing.

Chelsea Lately Bloopers

A Chelsea Lately special entitled Chelsea Lately Bloopers premiered on Tuesday December 22, 2009. It featured new bloopers, deleted scenes and outtakes from the round table and guest interviews.

International broadcasts

In the UK, the local version of E!, different than the one in rest of Europe, shows Chelsea Lately on a daily basis. In difference to the European version this feed also includes same day productions The Soup and the full 30 minute version E! News which are not on elsewhere in Europe.

Chelsea Lately is also broadcast daily on the E! Network in Australia, and New Zealand. With the demise of E! Canada, the show ceased being broadcast there as of September 1, 2009 following the closure of the E! network.

Region	Network(s)	Regional Title
Australia	E! Australia	Chelsea Lately
Brazil	E! Brazil	Chelsea Lately
Colombia	E! Latino	Chelsea Lately
Europe	E! Europe	Chelsea Lately
Mexico	E! Latino	Chelsea Lately
United Kingdom	E! United Kingdom	Chelsea Lately
Ireland	E! Ireland	Chelsea Lately
United States	E!	Chelsea Lately

Awards

Year	Result	Award	Category
2009	Winner	Teen Choice Award	Choice Late-Night Talk Show
2010	Nominated	People's Choice Awards	TV Talk Show

See also

• The Chelsea Handler Show
• List of late-night American network TV programs

External links

• Chelsea Lately Official Website
• Chelsea Lately at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show