After nearly thirty years on air, entertainment news show E! News, along with Pop of the Morning and In the Room, have been cancelled. E! spokesperson confirmed to Refinery29 that staffers and talent were notified early on the morning of August 5.
E! News, first went on the air in 1991 and has been hosted throughout the years by Ryan Seacrest, Giuliana Rancic and Maria Menounos. Pop of the Morning consisted of a panel that would discuss the day’s entertainment stories, and In the Room gave a peek inside various celebrities’ homes.
In July, Jeff Shell of NBCUniversal (E!’s parent company) said the television group would be restructuring and look to “shift resources from linear to streaming.” This new plan to streamline the business, paired with the devastating economic impact of coronavirus, therefore seems to be a likely factor in the decision to take E!'s three entertainment news programs off the air. “It is said that crises tend to accelerate and exacerbate trends, and that is certainly true in the television business,” Shell said.
Just last year, E! sought to expand its current entertainment news offerings by setting up a second studio in New York, which would also allow it to lengthen the hours of its daily coverage. E! News transitioned from a nightly broadcast in LA to a morning program in New York. The move came with layoffs, however, of about 20-25 Los Angeles-based staff members. Due to these new cancellations, members of the New York shows’ production teams (fewer than 10) will reportedly be laid off or reshuffled within the company.
The E! spokesperson further confirmed that the network’s studio production will be centralized in Los Angeles going forward.