‘E! News’ is shutting down after more than three decades
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“E! News,” the nightly pop culture program that helped define cable network E! Entertainment Television, is going away.
The Comcast-owned network informed “E! News” staff Thursday the program will tape its final episode on Sept. 25. The channel’s news operation will continue to provide coverage online, where it has a robust presence.
The staff was told the E! news audience prefers breaking entertainment coverage throughout the day on social media platforms instead of showing up at 11 p.m. Eastern for a live nightly show on traditional TV. About 20 jobs will be eliminated with the cancellation.
The network will continue to provide live coverage of red carpet events such as the Oscars and Golden Globes. E! also carries the People’s Choice Awards.
Anchor changes are disrupting one of the last true habits of traditional TV viewing. Two of the three network evening newscasts are undergoing major overhauls.
The “E! News” move was revealed ahead of the channel’s move to Versant, the spinoff company that will include other Comcast cable channels such as MSNBC, CNBC and Golf Channel.
Comcast is putting all of its cable networks — with the exception of Bravo — into Versant to prevent the mature businesses from dragging down the company’s stock price.
“E! News” was launched in 1991 and was long a highly profitable business for the network as there were few TV outlets for live coverage of entertainment and pop culture. Ryan Seacrest was co-host of the program from 2006 to 2015. The program was canceled in 2020 but returned in 2022.
The show is currently co-hosted by Keltie Knight and Justin Sylvester. Some of the on-air talent from the program will have the chance to move to Versant.
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