Chelsea Handler, late night host for E! Entertainment, has landed a lucrative deal with Comcast Entertainment Group, the parent of E!. It will keep her with the cable company for three more years at least.
It’s been said the deal is worth up to eight figures, meaning Handler will continue being the executive producer and host of her show “Chelsea Lately” at least through 2012.
Handler will also be producing a series for the stable of nets owned by Comcast, including the FearNet on-demand service, Style and G4. She will be producing through her new production company called Borderline Amazing Productions. As part of the deal, Comcast Entertainment Group will have first look rights for any projects coming from Borderline Amazing Productions through the year 2012.
Handler is running her production company with Tom Brunelle, head writer of “Chelsea Lately.” He will also continue to be the host’s executive producer.
Currently Handler is dating Ted Harbert, prexy CEO of Comcast Entertainment Group. Lisa Berger, the executive Vice President for E! series development and original programming announced Handler’s deal.
Berger said that “Chelsea Lately” is definitely a breakout hit. It’s significantly outgrown the late night audience for E!, especially with young women.
The “Chelsea Lately” talk show made its debut in July 2007. When the network moved the show up into the 11 pm time slot, they saw immediate gains in the rating. The talk show is averaging 746,000 viewers. That’s a 31% increase from last year for that time slot.
According to E!, Handler gets more 18-34 women viewers than “Last Call With Carson Daly,” “Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson,” or “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
In another development for Handler, Sony Pictures TV currently is adapting “Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea, her latest book. The executive producer for the project is Barry Sonnenfeld.
Both of Handler’s books have been on the best sellers list of the New York Times for months.
The credits of Handler’s include “In The Motherhood” (due to commitments for E! she won’t be appearing in the upcoming TV version on ABC), as well as “Girls Behaving Badly,” an Oxygen show.
Handler’s new deal means two of the biggest E! Stars are locked in now for several years. Last year a deal was was sealed between Ryan Seacrest and Comcast, keeping him with the cabler through 2012 as well.
