Maria Menounos wants E! host out of the red carpet

joan

September 22, 2015 12:34 PM

According to Radar Online, the new E! News host, Maria Menounos wants Giuliana's job so bad that she's ready to do anything to have it.

Giuliana Rancic

Giuliana Rancic made a triumphant return to host E!'s Emmy Awards red carpet on September 20 after quitting E! News earlier this year but not everyone was so happy to see her… not even her replacement Maria Menounos who was conspicuously absent!

According to Radar Online, the new E! News host wants Giuliana's job so bad that she's ready to do anything to have it.

"The network had to keep Giuliana under contract to do all the award shows because fans hated Maria when she did the SAG Awards last year," a source tells the site.

"But Maria wasn’t happy that she was going to be playing second fiddle to Giuliana and not doing the award shows is a sticking point. Maria loves getting designer dresses on loan for doing the red carpets. Over time, she is hopeful that Giuliana won’t want to continue to commute from Chicago to Los Angeles to do the award shows," the source continues.

The source added, "Maria is very focused and determined to become a bigger brand and she thinks that includes hosting red carpet award events. She has told bosses she can be ready to go if Giuliana gets sick or delayed by traveling. Giuliana knows Maria is gunning for her."

So far, ratings for E! News have soared since Menounos replaced Rancic. As we earlier reported, the ratings for Rancic’s final week as the anchor of E! News, August 3 through 9, 2015, averaged 444,000 viewers for the hour, according to Nielsen. The ratings for Menounos’ first week as the anchor of E! News, August 10 through 16, 2015, averaged 546,000 for the hour, according to Nielsen.

joan