Conan O’Brien versus Chelsea Handler…the war of numbers in late night cable, and for the first time, the blonde, snappy and sometimes (or should we say, most times) potty-mouthed bombshell surpassed the ginger NBC kick-out in ratings since he took his late-night quirks and smirks on cable via TBS.

For the month of June, E! network’s mean queen attracted an average of 959,000 viewers, almost a hundred thousand more than what O’Brien managed to pull for the same month (851,000). And while many will attribute Handler’s winning figures to the hype she’s drawing from an impending book release (‘Lies that Chelsea Handler Told Me’, her follow-up to her succession of NY Times best sellers), a new NBC sitcom and/or the continuing success of her stand-up tours, most people would simply suggest that it’s her brutally honest, raunchy and ‘I-don’t-give-a-damn’ style of comedy that glues millions of viewers to their TV sets for 30 minutes every midnight, regardless of how late ‘Chelsea Lately’ airs.

We could write more than a handful of reasons why Handler’s edging out Conan in the battle of the cable ratings but one thing is for certain, she knows how to play the hand she’s been given, and Conan needs to learn a thing or two from this funny gal who made a name for herself by calling out on celebrities, wannabes, or even the lamest of ordinaries who are acting like the finest a-holes America has seen. ‘Chelsea Lately’ is probably the only show in the entirety of television that knows how to bank on the stupidity and bluntness of Americans, concepts that have always been the ground material for the late night talk show which spares no one, from rapper Pharrell, to Justin Bieber, to her new found BFF Jennifer Aniston and even Academy Award winner Gwyneth Paltrow. All the profanities and provocation surrounding every bit of conversation in every ‘Lately’ episode is giving Team Coco a run for their money.

All we’re saying that now Conan is on cable, where a wider leeway in terms of language, theme and topics is tolerated, he should maximize it. After all, comics never run out of material, there is always enough dumbness among Americans to go around, and when there is shortage, there’s always the story of how he was ‘Jay Leno-ed’ out of NBC to laugh and be sarcastic about.

In Chelsea Handler’s recent interview with The New York Times, she complained about the quality of today’s mainstream entertainment, particularly the ones being shown in the tube.

“We’re seeking out such grossness in human behavior and want such mindless entertainment. ‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta’ and some of these other shows are more racist. Or ’16 and Pregnant.’ Getting rewarded for being pregnant when you’re a teenager? Are you serious? I mean, that makes me want to kill somebody.”

Indeed, we are seeing a different side of Chelsea Handler these days. The no-holds-barred comedienne and late night host of E! network’s ‘Chelsea Lately’, whose vulgarity and utter candor has made her millions of dollars from book deals, sold-out stand-up tours and even her own NBC comedy series based on her second best-seller (‘Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea’, in which she works both as an executive producer and a co-star), is looking for other sensible avenues to exploit her wits and skills, or as The Hollywood Reporter quotes her, “I want to do something that’s going to utilize my brain a little more than this show (Chelsea Lately).”

Nickelodeon probably came across those pieces, which could be the reason why the popular children’s network is reaching out to her to play the role of Victoria Justice’s mom in the upcoming Nick flick ‘Fun Size’, according to a THR report.

The family-oriented role would give her a chance to broaden her demographic which will now include kids and wholesome fared parents. But most importantly, the role could buy her some time to keep her brain from “bleeding” with all the “celebrity-centered” stuff she has been doing at E! “I want to do something that’s more mindful and isn’t celebrity-centered,” Handler tells THR.

With her contract at E! about to expire by the new year, talks are now circulating whether the queen of late night talk Chelsea Handler will be jumping ship to a major network now that she has proven her worth not only as a bankable talk show host and a New York Times best-selling author, but also as an executive producer of a green-lit comedy series adapted from one of her popular published works.

After four years of hosting ‘Chelsea Lately’ on E!, which also birthed its own spin-off, the weekly mockumentary ‘After Lately’, Handler’s income from hosting alone is said to be at $3.5 million a year. Now armed with four bestsellers and an NBC pilot (‘Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea’) where she is sitting in both as an executive producer and co-star (not as herself but as her older sister Sloan), the talk show’s worth is estimated to be more than the said figure, and E! may want to raise the stakes if they want to keep their darling rainmaker.

“It’s a lengthy process,” Handler said of the negotiations. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, she continued, “They tell you’re valuable, and then you get a counter [offer] and you think, ‘I guess you really don’t care about me at all.’ Nothing is set in stone, so if things go south, then obviously I will be moving along.”

“Moving along” might mean a new home under the peacock network’s colorful plumage, or at least that’s what the rumors imply. Rumor also has it that while NBC has big and maybe even groundbreaking plans for her, she isn’t keen to do another talk show regardless of the time slot, despite the prestige it could add to her resume being the first woman who could possibly host a primetime network talk show. “The next step for me is not ‘The Tonight Show’. That’s a job for Jimmy Fallon. I’m way too divisive for a show like that,” she explains.

So it seems that the key to sign a multi-faceted talent like Handler is to make her do something new, “I can’t keep doing the same thing, my brain is bleeding.” She also adds, “If ‘Lately’ is the show that I’m going to do, it’s going to change.” To date, ‘Chelsea Lately’ racks up a million viewers every night regardless of its guests and has earned the cable network $40 million last year. It is the network’s fourth top rated show, rallying behind three reality shows from the Kardashians, and ex-Playmates Kendra Wilkinson and Holly Madison.

So while she weighs her options, she hasn’t eliminated E! from the equation, not yet at least. “I’m not looking to totally bail on E! They’ve done a lot for me, and I like it here … If you take away the Kardashians.”