Kathy Griffin quits E!’s “Fashion Police” after seven episodes as host

After only seven episodes in two months, Kathy Griffin announced Thursday night that she had left her newest gig — replacing the late Joan Rivers as host of E!’s Fashion Police — because the show’s conceit of mocking celebrities for their red-carpet outfits was even meaner than she was willing to be.

“I discovered that my style does not fit with the creative direction of the show and now it’s time to move on,” Griffin wrote.

Here is her full statement, posted on Twitter @KathyGriffin.

Two weeks ago, Kelly Osbourne left Fashion Police after co-hosting it for five years, upset over another co-host, Giulana Rancic, for mocking Zendaya Coleman’s dreadlocks she sported at the Academy Awards. In an interview with the Chicago-Sun Times published a few days ago, Griffin claimed she wouldn’t have gone there: “Probably not. But I wouldn’t have said the joke in the first place. Some dude wrote it for her.”

Which is weird, considering the writers for Fashion Police went on strike and have yet to come back. And that, in the moment, Griffin may have tagged the joke off-camera. Regardless…

The show itself had returned just in January from a hiatus after Joan Rivers died last year. And it didn’t take long for Griffin to discover that replacing her wouldn’t be easy, for multiple reasons. As she told the Sun-Times in the magazine profile out this weekend, “As it is my living, passion and vocation, here’s the best I can give you: I will make my Miley Cyrus jokes as long as people want to laugh at them,” she says. “But there is a chasm of difference between making a joke about Miley Cyrus wearing duct tape over her nipples in public — which I think is totally fair game — and simply looking at a photo of her on a red carpet and saying she is ugly or a bad singer or pathetic or something like that.”

For its part, E! released this statement overnight: “We can confirm that Kathy Griffin is leaving E!’s “Fashion Police.” We wish her 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 9pm with our talented Co-Hosts Giuliana Rancic and Brad Goreski and Executive Producer Melissa Rivers. No further information is available at this time.”

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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