On May 11, the deeply snarky Chelsea Handler comes back with a new talk show — the first for Netflix, premiering at 12:01 a.m. This means she’s officially back in the late-night club where, for years, she was the sole woman in a sea of male hosts.
Her show, “Chelsea,” will air only three nights a week (Wed-Fri) and has been a little vague about its mission. “Join Chelsea as she travels around the world — from Russia, Japan, and Mexico City, across the U.S. and back again to Sony Pictures Studios, where she tapes in front of a LIVE in-studio audience — to explore the subjects that matter most to you…engaging in thought-provoking, yet hilarious conversations about topics like international cultures, alternative lifestyles, education, health, sports, parenting, politics, and more.”
Uh, OK. Vague press releases aside, there are several reasons to see her foray back into late-night talk show format as a positive.
1) The Numbers
“Chelsea Lately” went off the air in 2014, taking with it the sole lady in late-night. Say what you will about the outspoken, sometimes abrasive comic, she was the only woman standing in that world for seven years, and she held her own with frequently hilarious interviews — not least because she was more willing than most male hosts to call people on their bullshit. Samantha Bee is now thankfully on the air with “Full Frontal” — which will become even more indispensable given the inevitability of a Trump candidacy — but she still represents, by my count, 1/10th of the current late night lineup, the rest of which is all-male (James Corden, Andy Cohen, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Larry Wilmore, Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Conan O’Brien. Am I missing anyone?)
Handler is a much-needed female voice in an environment that promises to become even more charged, regarding gender issues, as we move into general election season — no matter how much or little she chooses to focus on politics outright.
2) Her Politics
If Handler does opt to comment on the presidential race (as we hope she will), we won’t need to guess where she stands; in comparison, most late-night hosts keep their personal preferences on the down-low, though it’s hard to imagine any of them stumping for Donald Trump. In recent months, Handler has taken a couple of brazen stands against Trump — one of them a nearly-nude shot that’s become sort of her thing on Instagram, the other a photo of her toting around a Trump piñata with a rope. (Her zings about Trump date back to before the campaign, too.) She’s stated outright that she’s for Hillary — not going so far as to call herself a fan, but simply that “I think she’s more capable than anybody else.”
3) Her Lack of Interest in Famous People
She may be good at getting them to talk, but Handler is demonstrably bored with having to host movie-star guests with projects to shill. As she told EW, “I’m no longer on a network that just wants you to talk about celebrities, so I don’t have to talk about celebrities.” Of course, Netflix followed this up by announcing some of her first guests on the new show’s first week would be Gwyneth Paltrow, Drew Barrymore, and the cast from “Captain America: Civil War,” so she’s not exactly declaring a moratorium on famous-people sit downs. Still, even a glancing interest in looking beyond the pretty people for interviews is a sign that “Chelsea” could break the stale boundaries set by the current late-night lineup.
4) Her Curiosity About the World
Her four-part docuseries, “Chelsea Does,” was met with mixed reviews at best, most of them including accusations that it revolved too much around her. Still, when critics did venture praise, it was for her ability to cede the microphone to other people and listen to their views on the four topics in the series (drugs, marriage, technology, and racism). With an expanded budget and global focus, Handler may be able to widen the scope of late-night beyond its current focus on the election and the Kardashians.
5) Her General Dislike of Pandering
It’s rare to go a day without being encouraged to watch at least one video of a celebrity lipsynching, karaoke’ing, playing beer pong, or otherwise bro-ing it up with one of the major male talk show hosts. These viral videos have become an unnerving mainstay of pop culture, as if the job of talk-show host has now morphed into being sort of a genial best friend, and the point of the show to provide mindless distraction for a viewing populace with an attention span of 20 seconds. Handler, who does withering humor with the best of them, has rarely gone in for these sorts of frat-boy shenanigans. She lives and dies by the snark — which is more of an art form than relay races and playing “Truth or Dare” — and if her focus is on actually interviewing people and producing news magazine segments with some substance (she told Jimmy Fallon that the show would be like “if ’60 Minutes’ was funny”), she will already be ahead of the pack. Except you, Samantha Bee. Never change!
