Kathy Griffin is leaving E!’s “Fashion Police.”
“After 7 episodes of Fashion Police, I have discovered my style does not fit with the creative direction of the show and now it’s time to move on,” Griffin said on Twitter Thursday.
Griffin’s departure arrives just a couple weeks after five year co-host Kelly Osbourne decided to leave the show. In a statement to press on Feb. 27, E! said Osbourne was leaving “to pursue other opportunities.”
The network sent the following statement to press:
We wish [Kathy Griffin] all the best and are grateful for her time on the show, as well as the many laughs that she gave us all. “Fashion Police” will return, as scheduled, on Monday, March 30 at 9 p.m. with our talented Co-Hosts Giuliana Rancic and Brad Goreski and Executive Producer Melissa Rivers. No further information is available at this time.
Osbourne left as co-host Giuliana Rancic found herself in a storm of controversy surrounding comments she made on the Oscar edition of “Fashion Police” about Zendaya Coleman’s dreadlocks that many found racist.
As TheWrap exclusively reported, the whole joke debacle was a perfect storm of things gone wrong. Not only was the joke written for Rancic, but part of the setup to the joke was edited out in the broadcast. Furthermore, Rancic was unable to finish the joke as she was interrupted by Griffin.
Rancic apologized profusely for the incident and hasn’t made excuses for herself. But, individuals close to her told TheWrap that they still hope E! will cop to its role in the debacle.
Earlier this week, Griffin confirmed in an interview that the joke was written for Rancic and dispensed some advice for her co-host: “Don’t have anyone write you jokes or even suggest jokes for you on ‘Fashion Police.’”
See Griffin’s farewell tweet below:
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) March 13, 2015
After Joan Rivers died last September, Griffin was quickly considered to be the heir apparent to Rivers’ seat on “Fashion Police.” Not only was Griffin a close friend of Rivers, but they both had a similar sense of bravery when it came to joking about celebrities.
Most people were convinced Griffin was the right choice for Rivers’ replacement, except E!. The network continued to search for other possible replacements and had a short list of other candidates. The network even did focus group testing, which resulted in low scores for Griffin because individuals felt she was too similar to Rivers but not as good.
As the Golden Globes award ceremony in January approached, E! finally decided that Griffin was the only choice that made sense and made her hiring public on Dec. 1.