Business meeting. Chunk has been acting like this since I started my tour. pic.twitter.com/pIt20UU0VO

— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) April 15, 2014

Chelsea Handler tweeted this ^^ on Monday. Look at the photo closely. Note what she’s holding in her left hand. See the CBS “Eye”? Chelsea wants you to see that. She wants you to know that she has options. She wants you to know that even though she pimped herself to all the trade papers as a possible candidate to replace David Letterman, only to be rebuffed quickly when Stephen Colbert was named within a week, she wants you to know that she’s still up for bigger and better things. She wants you to know that she’s still talking to CBS. She wants you to know that she’s going network. How? How is it possible for a woman with Chelsea’s history to still be up for a potential network job? I don’t even know. But she is. She’s being discussed as a major contender to take over from Craig Ferguson. At least according to Chelsea:

The late night game of musical chairs is about to end — and David Letterman’s one-time protégé looks like he’ll be the one without a seat. CBS’ “Late Late Show” host Craig Ferguson has lost his champion — Letterman himself — and faces an uncertain future.

“He’s not exactly in the driver’s seat when it comes down to negotiating (a new deal),” a source close to Ferguson told The News.

Ferguson is not likely to be back when his current contract expires in June 2015, sources said. But that contract has a clause that pays him as much as $10 million if he did not get Letterman’s job when the legendary comic retired. This week, he learned he didn’t get the gig — it went to Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert. Executives at the network said Ferguson wasn’t even considered to replace Letterman because the focus of his talk show is “too narrow.” They are also disappointed that it never became a ratings smash.

Ferguson’s show is part of a unique deal Letterman worked out with CBS shortly after he started at “The Late Show” in 1993 when the network was desperate to negotiate a long-term extension with the gap-toothed funnyman. In what has been described as one of the most creative deals in television, CBS gave Letterman and his production company, Worldwide Pants, control of the 12:30 a.m. slot following “The Late Show.” With Letterman out of the picture next year, Ferguson is negotiating with CBS instead of Letterman’s production company as he has in the past. And CBS isn’t negotiating back.

Instead, the network is talking to Chelsea Handler, the host of “Chelsea Lately” on E!, sources said.

[From The NYDN]

If you’re telling me that Craig Ferguson is out, so be it. I never watch The Late Late Show anyway, although I do see the odd clip here and there and he seems like a perfectly nice late show host. But I’ll buy that he’s on the way out, and if so, I wish him luck.

As for Chelsea… I feel like this is just a blatant repeat of what happened just after Letterman announced his retirement. Chelsea really did go to all the trade papers to make sure that she made everyone’s short list for replacements. I kind of think that’s why CBS announced Colbert so quickly – they didn’t want Chelsea and her big mouth dominating any more news cycles. So, is she really in talks to replace Ferguson?

Chelsea Handler is not in the running for the 12:35 a.m. time slot, so says CBS. The current host of E! late-night talker Chelsea Lately posted an Instagram photo Monday of her with a packet of papers, one of which prominently featured the CBS logo, alluding to the fact that she was in the market for a new project at the broadcast network.

But CBS isn’t offering much insight into Handler’s cryptic post. After reports surfaced that Handler could be a successor to Craig Ferguson at the Late Late Show, the network issued an official statement regarding the matter.

“There are no discussions with Chelsea Handler regarding the network’s 12:30 late-night broadcast,” a CBS spokesperson said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Her meeting with CBS yesterday was a general meeting with our syndication group.”

Following the announcement that Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert would succeed David Letterman at the Late Show perch in 2015, CBS Entertainment chairman Nina Tassler addressed the cloudy future of the 12:35 a.m. time period, which currently houses Ferguson’s Late Late Show. (Ferguson’s contract expires at the end of the year.)

“Craig is our 12:30 guy,” Tassler told THR. “We’ve been focused so intently on 11:30. We’re dealing with one hour of late-night at a time. We’ll have conversations about 12:30 very shortly. But our first order of business was to shore up 11:30.”

[From THR]

I feel like CBS is still being cagey, but I also think it’s kind of funny that someone over there really wants to shut down the Handler speculation completely. It would have been better if it was a named source, but still, it looks bad for Chelsea especially after all of her hustling. I hope all of the networks follow suit too – look at her history of racism and petty grudges, look at her history of bad-mouthing her employers. Do not give this woman a platform.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.