The entertainment news landscape is losing one of its longest-running institutions as E! News prepares to sign off for good on September 25, marking the end of a 32-year run that survived multiple reinventions but ultimately couldn’t withstand the industry’s digital transformation.
This final cancellation comes just three years after the show’s 2022 revival following its initial 2020 axing, when it returned from a two-year hiatus with a new late-night format airing at 11 p.m. The decision reflects E!’s strategic pivot toward digital-first entertainment coverage as parent company NBCUniversal prepares to spin off the channel into the newly formed Versant (previously dubbed SpinCo), with the network’s 87 million social media followers now driving its real-time celebrity news strategy.
Staffers received the news Thursday morning during an emotional meeting that left approximately 20 employees uncertain about their futures, though some on-air correspondents may transition to roles within Versant. Tonight’s scheduled new episode has been replaced with a repeat, with fresh installments resuming next week for the show’s final two-month stretch. While E! News fades to black, the E! network itself will continue producing original programming including Botched Presents: Plastic Surgery Rewind and the upcoming Kimora: Back in the Fab Lane, while maintaining its red carpet dominance through Live From E! specials and awards broadcasts like January’s Critics Choice Awards.
This cancellation bookends a turbulent era for the franchise that began in 1991 as Entertainment Television, later rebranding as E! News Daily before settling on its current title. The show weathered format changes from daytime to primetime to late-night, outlasting competitors but ultimately succumbing to the same digital disruption it once chronicled.
As one veteran producer lamented, “We used to break the news—now we’ve become the news,” capturing the bittersweet irony of a program that documented Hollywood’s evolution only to be undone by it. The entertainment industry now watches to see how Versant will reinvent celebrity journalism for the TikTok era without the program that defined entertainment news for three decades, leaving behind a legacy that includes breaking countless celebrity scoops while training generations of entertainment reporters who now dominate digital media.
The Pop Blog general news and updates, mostly from press releases and conferences.