Last month it was announced that Chelsea Handler had signed on to star in a new talk show for Netflix. Right now, all we know about Handler’s show is that it’s slated to premiere in October 2016 and will be the first series to be released at a specific time block on the streaming service. According to Business Insider, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos recently addressed the company’s intentions with Handler’s show, which will be heavily influenced by the changing ways people watch late night shows today:
“People are not watching scripted programming the way they used to. They’re also not watching these late-night talk shows the way they used to, meaning they’re not watching them at 11:30. They’re watching them days, weeks, sometimes months later online or on stacked episodes on DVR. So what we are hoping to do with Chelsea and her team is create a show that’s built closer to the way people are going to watch it, the way we had done with serialized dramas where we to took out the commercial breaks and the cliffhangers and really produce it for the way people watch. And we’ve got a lot of time between now and then to work through all the format details. Chelsea is incredibly excited and we’re really excited about her brand and we think it’s going to be great for us.â€
Chelsea Handler’s show will be Netflix’s first original talk show, so if the approach works it could lead to some interesting late night competition. Similarly, HBO has also been very next-day-viewing-friendly with Last Week Tonight with John Oliver – an unusual move for the pay network – so hopefully this commercial-free, YouTube-friendly late night trend is here to stay.