E! News canceled after 30 years on air due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The E! Network has pulled the plug on E! News after three decades on the air. The new New York-based entertainment news show also joins Pop Of The Morning and In The Room, which was also canceled by the network due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

E! News, Pop Of The Morning and In The Room paused production in March at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and have been dark ever since. This led to the cancellation of all three shows by the network and while it wouldn't have been as surprising to see Pop Of The Morning and In The Room go because they were newer additions to E!, it's a little surprising that E! News also got cut because it has been a staple of the network for years.

According to "Deadline", the reasons were purely financial. All divisions of NBCUniversal have been asked to look for ways to cut costs and produce content more efficiently as the company, like most entertainment entities, has grappled with the economic impact from the pandemic. The plan is for E! to consolidate its production operations on the West Coast.

The timing of the pandemic and ultimately the cancellation comes at a time when all of these shows were set to thrive at E!. A year ago, it was announced that the network was expanding its entertainment news programming under Tammy Filler, who joined E! from Today in May 2019 to oversee development and production for all news programming across platforms. With that expansion, E! News moved from the West Coast as an evening news program and to New York as a morning show.

E! News, which was previously known as E! News Daily and E! News Live, was the flagship entertainment newscast of the E! Network and began its life on September 1, 1991. The show has seen a slew of hosts over the years including Ryan Seacrest, Giuliana Rancic, Catt Sadler, Dagny Hultgreen, Jason Kennedy, Clinton Sparks, and Robbie Laughlin. Much like shows like Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood and Extra, E! News has been a part of the pop culture entertainment news mecca for years. As for the other two shows that were canceled by the network, Pop of the Morning, similar to the LA-based Daily Pop, featured a panel of personalities delivering irreverent and unfiltered conversations centered around the buzziest entertainment news stories of the day while  In The Room took viewers inside celebrity homes for in-depth interviews and conversation around their latest projects, products, passions and more.

According to "Deadline", the news operation will continue to maintain the E! News website as of now.