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Chelsea Handler‘s Netflix talk show is undergoing a revamp for season two.
Chelsea, which formerly aired three nights a week on the streaming giant, will now air once a week on Fridays at 12:01 a.m., starting April 14.
The new episodes will each run an hour long, an increase from season-one episodes, which ran between 20 and 40 minutes. Season two will feature more in-depth interviews, bigger field pieces and dinner parties. The format change will also see Handler venture outside the studio more, with travel planned to India, Europe, Montana and Washington, D.C., among other locations.
Season two will stream for 30 weeks, meaning 30 hours of content has been produced for Chelsea — a fall from the original 45 hours (90 half-hour episodes) Netflix ordered when the series was renewed in July.
Handler made the announcement Thursday on her Twitter account.
The changes follow a rough first season for Chelsea, the first show of its kind for Netflix. Despite big buzz for the former E! talk-show host, Handler’s show quietly launched last May to lackluster reviews. Showrunner Bill Wolff (The View) exited just three weeks in, with Handler announcing she would run the series alone.
Handler opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about the “rocky start” for Chelsea in July at the Democratic National Convention. “There were a couple weeks where I was like, ‘What the f-— am I doing?'” she said. “Then I made the adjustment and was up and running and got the train on the track. And now it’s great. It’s exactly what I wanted to do. I get to talk about all different topics. I get to interview people I’m interested in.”
Netflix gave Chelsea a season-two renewal in July.
The format change is reminiscent of the docuseries Handler produced for Netflix before her eponymous talk show launched. Titled Chelsea Does, the four-part series saw her tackling subjects such as drugs, racism and marriage in-depth.
Netflix has recently pushed further into the talk-show genre. Bill Nye is set to launch his own science-themed talk show, Bill Nye Saves the World, on April 21. Other unscripted projects for the streamer include its first reality competition series, The Ultimate Beastmaster, which will be released worldwide on Feb. 24.
Handler joins a growing group of late-night hosts who have embraced a weekly format, among them Samantha Bee on TBS and John Oliver for HBO.
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