LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Fashion Police” is taking a break after losing co-hosts Kelly Osbourne and Kathy Griffin and plans to slip into something new for fall, the E! channel said.
Co-hosts Giuliana Rancic and Brad Goreski and executive producer Melissa Rivers will be back in September with the series, which will “evolve” into its next chapter, E! said in a statement Tuesday.
Previously, E! said the celebrity critique fest would air as scheduled March 30 despite the exits of Osbourne and Griffin.
The hiatus announcement came a day after Griffin went on “The View” and discussed why she chose to quit March 12 after just seven episodes. The comedian, who replaced the late Joan Rivers, her friend and mentor, already had tweeted about leaving because she was uneasy being part of the show.
Griffin told “The View” Monday that the E! series didn’t suit her improvisational style and that she felt forced to “comment about pictures of beautiful women in perfect dresses and say kind of bad things.”
As a feminist and a comic, she said, it didn’t feel right.
Osbourne left the show in late February, after complaining about Rancic’s red-carpet criticism of African-American singer-actress Zendaya’s dreadlocks. Rancic said they suggested the smell of marijuana.
Zendaya went online to slam the remarks as “outrageously offensive” and Rancic later apologized, saying the experience taught her not to perpetuate cliches and stereotypes.
E! did not detail how “Fashion Police” would change or who its new co-hosts will be. The show has faltered since losing the wily, tart-tongued Joan Rivers, Melissa’s mother.