Will ‘Fashion Police’ end in wake of Kathy Griffin’s exit?

While producer Melissa Rivers and the honchos at E! News say “Fashion Police” will return on March 30, there are rumors the troubled TV show may be quietly axed by the network.

After all, it has been a very tumultuous time for the fashion-critiquing chatfest, which frankly has not been the same since the death of its mainstay, Joan Rivers. First there was the big kerfuffle over Giuliana Rancic’s crack about Zendaya at the Oscars that contributed to Kelly Osbourne quitting the show.

Now, only weeks after Kathy Griffin’s debut as Joan Rivers’ replacement, she’s exited as well. While the Oak Park native told her stand-up audience in Connecticut on Friday that “It just didn’t work out. That’s it. That’s the scandal,” I’ve heard from E! insiders that the comedian just was not happy with how the show was being produced and sensed a great deal of behind-the-scenes negativity that she didn’t want to deal with in her daily life.

Now, despite network denials, there’s talk that E! may either cancel “Fashion Police,” or at least shelve it for awhile.

“There’s no sense going forward unless they can come up with some really solid, smart and funny replacements for Kelly and Kathy,” said an E! source Saturday. “The show is a great concept and I hope they find a way to keep it going, but obviously they need some pretty strong people to be paired with [remaining show panelists] Brad [Goreski] and Giuliana.”