Yahoo Movies Giuliana Rancic Announces She's Leaving E!'s Red Carpet Coverage for Development Deal at NBCUniversal
Giuliana Rancic is saying goodbye to E!'s red carpet coverage.
"After 20 fabulous years hosting E!'s red carpet, I have decided to step out of my red carpet heels into a new pair of shoes," she wrote in a statement on social media on Friday.
The TV host, 46, said that she has signed a development deal with NBCUniversal, teasing more projects to come in the future.
"One of my passions is great storytelling and I am thrilled to announce a new development deal with E!'s parent company NBCUniversal where I will be producing and bringing stories to life."
After spending nearly two decades at the network, Rancic had many people to thank for her lengthy hosting career.
"To my E! family, thank you for allowing me to make my red carpet dreams come true for the past two decades. It has truly been a highlight of my career and life," she wrote. "To my production team throughout the years, you are all simply the best. We have made some beautiful memories together that I will always carry with me."
She concluded, "And to all the viewers, all around the world, thank you for watching and supporting me as we went along together on this red carpet ride. I love and appreciate you all and I sure hope you will join me as I enter this exciting new chapter ❤️"
Rancic began her career at E! as a correspondent for the long-running TV series and became a co-host of E! News in 2005. She briefly left the show from 2015 to 2018 to focus on family.
"You know, never an easy decision, right? Especially when you love your career," she said during an appearance on The View at the time. "But I had to do it. My priorities were a little out of whack for a while there. I was just working so much and if anyone knows my story, we struggled to have a child. We went through infertility, and it was a long process."
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Just one year after returning, Rancic announced in 2019 that she would once again be departing from her full-time hosting gig at the network when the program relocated from Los Angeles to New York City in January 2020.
In an interview with PEOPLE, the red carpet veteran said her decision at the time was based on "wanting to be with family more, and focusing and spending as much time as possible with family."
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"And then also having that flexibility to give 100 percent to our restaurants and our other businesses — to be doing things that we're really passionate about. So it's nice though to be able to still kind of stay and do it all," she told PEOPLE.
Though she stepped away from the daily E! News show, she continued to host their Live from the Red Carpet events as well as other E! specials over the past year.
In a statement to PEOPLE, an E! News spokesperson said: "While we will all miss watching Giuliana bring her iconic interview style, infectious humor and keen sense of fashion to E!'s red carpet, we are excited to announce a development deal across NBCUniversal where she will bring her passion projects to life. We look forward to collaborating with Giuliana in the future and we will always be her biggest fans -- on and off the carpet."
