Ever since the Brian Williams scandal, America has been lost, abandoned in its search for hard-hitting, incisive sources of journalistic truth. Luckily, there’s one person who has heard its mournful cry: the author of Uganda Be Kidding Me. Variety reports that Chelsea Handler wants to take her new Netflix show in a more serious direction, and leave behind the tabloid gossip discussion that defined her former E! program Chelsea Lately.
During a talk at the Code Media conference, Handler engaged in her favorite pastime of bashing her former employer, saying that the strict parameters of a nightly cable talk show were simply too binding for a polymath such as herself. Specifically singling out the Kardashian family, she said, “I just don’t want to ever have to see that again. I don’t care. I don’t care about that.” (Which, to be fair, is the least controversial statement imaginable.) “I don’t want just my audience that was there at E!; I want to grow up,” added the comedian whose most recent special included explaining that Uganda was interesting because “I’ve always wanted to know where rappers come from.” It’s precisely those kind of hard-hitting truth bombs that were presumably too much for the patrician, monocle-wearing fuddy-duddy channel responsible for Rich Kids Of Beverly Hills.
Despite having no real idea of what her upcoming Netflix show is going to look like format-wise, Handler has some plans for what she wants it to be. “I would like a healthy mix of everything that goes on around the world,” she said, mentioning a desire for the show to have a correspondent. The example she offered was that of “the well-roundedness of 60 Minutes but faster, quicker, cooler,” also name-checking The Daily Show as a model. Indeed, the woman many already consider to be the reincarnated spirit of Edward R. Murrow mentioned Syria and ISIS as topics fit for her new direction. So get ready for soon-to-be segments “Syria-sly Hilarious” and “ISISpect There’s A Racist Joke Somewhere In Here!”