Most guides on how to get featured on E! News were written for a show that no longer exists. In July 2025, NBCUniversal told staff it was ending the nightly E! News broadcast, and the last new editions aired that September. Plenty of publicists read the headline and crossed E! off the list. That was a mistake, because the part of E! that ran most outside stories never stopped. E! Online kept publishing, the network’s social accounts kept posting to an audience TV Insider put at 87 million followers, and Live from E! kept its red carpets. What changed is the door you knock on.
This guide covers the new shape of E!, who still takes pitches, what makes a story E! can run, and a simple test we use on every entertainment pitch before it leaves the outbox.
What E! News is in 2026
Think of E! News today as a digital newsroom with a television heritage, not a TV show with a website. The broadcast had been on and off before. It went on an indefinite hiatus in 2020, came back in 2022 from a studio it shared with Access Hollywood at Universal Studios Hollywood, and then ended again in 2025. According to Variety’s reporting on the cancellation, the late-night slot kept losing to breaking news on phones. By the time a clip aired at 11 p.m., the audience had seen it on Instagram hours earlier.
The E! cable network now sits inside Versant, the company Comcast formed to hold its cable channels. For a publicist, the corporate structure matters less than one fact: the work that produces stories moved online. Reporters write for E! Online, producers cut short video for social, and the red carpet team still works awards season.
That shift changes what a good pitch looks like. A TV booking pitch asked, “Will this make a good three-minute segment?” A digital pitch asks something harder: “Will this get clicked, shared and searched today?”
Which desks still take outside pitches?
E! Online covers a predictable set of beats. Celebrity news and relationships sit at the center. Around them orbit TV and streaming, music, fashion, beauty, royals, reality TV, and shopping content, where editors round up products tied to celebrities, seasons or trends.
Those beats are your real targets. A beauty brand does not pitch “E! News.” It pitches the writer who covered a celebrity skincare launch last week. A reality TV production company does not pitch the network. It pitches the reporter who recaps that franchise.
To find those people, read the site for a week. Search E! Online for three or four stories that look like the one you want, note the bylines, and check how often each writer publishes. Writers who file daily need material. Writers who file weekly features need exclusives and access. Sort your list that way before you write a word.
Shopping editors deserve a separate mention because they are the most open door at most entertainment outlets. Their job is to publish product content that converts, and they need a steady supply of items with a reason to exist right now. If your product has a celebrity user, a seasonal angle or a viral moment behind it, the shopping desk is often the fastest route onto the site. Expect affiliate links to be part of the deal, and have your affiliate program details ready.
Build the story E! can’t ignore
E! does not cover companies. It covers famous people and the culture around them. The story you pitch has to start there.
Four hooks carry almost every outside story E! runs. The first is a celebrity connection that is real and documented: a star wore it, used it, invested in it, designed it or posted about it. The second is a cast or talent angle: an actor from a show people are watching right now is available to talk, or has news. The third is a trend already moving on TikTok or Instagram, where your client has data or a product at the center. The fourth is an event with famous attendees, like a launch party, a premiere after-party or a charity gala, with photos.
Notice what is missing. “We launched a new product” is not a hook. “Our founder has an inspiring story” is not a hook. “We hit a revenue milestone” belongs at a business outlet. If you can’t connect your news to one of the four, E! is the wrong target, and you will get further pitching a trade outlet or a lifestyle site.
When a celebrity connection exists, prove it. Link the Instagram post. Attach the photo with usage rights cleared. Name the stylist who pulled the piece. Entertainment writers get a constant stream of claims that a famous person “loves” a product, and they ignore any claim they can’t verify in thirty seconds.
Pitch timing follows the news cycle, not your calendar
Entertainment news has a short half-life. A celebrity sighting is worth the most in the first few hours, and much less by the next morning. Awards shows, premieres and finales create predictable spikes that writers plan around weeks out.
So you run two clocks. The first clock is planned. If you know a client will be on the red carpet at a specific awards show, or that a product will appear in a finale, pitch the relevant writer two to three weeks ahead with an offer: early access, an exclusive photo, an interview slot. Awards season is crowded, and writers lock in their plans early.
The second clock is reactive. When something happens that touches your client, such as a star wearing their jacket at an airport, you have a window of a few hours. Have photos, product details, price, a link and a one-line quote ready to send within an hour. A late pitch on a live story is worth less than no pitch, because it signals you are not plugged in.
Avoid pitching evergreen brand stories on major news days. When a big celebrity story breaks, entertainment desks clear the decks. Your email will sink.
What to send, line by line
Keep the email short enough to read on a phone. Writers on fast desks skim subject lines and the first two sentences, and they decide there.
The subject line states the story, not the brand. “Photos: [Celebrity] wore [Brand] jacket at LAX this morning” works. “Exciting news from [Brand]” does not. Put the famous name first, because that is the part the writer’s audience searches for.
The first sentence restates the news with the most important fact. The second sentence says what you are offering: photos with rights, a statement, an interview, an exclusive window. Then add the verification link, the product details a shopping writer would need, and your phone number. Sign off. That is the whole email.
Never attach large files. Use a single link to a folder with high-resolution images, labeled clearly with credit lines. Writers can’t publish a photo they can’t credit, so include the photographer’s name for each image.
If the writer replies, answer fast. On a digital desk, a reply that arrives two hours later can mean the story ran without you, or did not run at all.
Mistakes that get publicists muted
The fastest way off an entertainment writer’s list is a false celebrity claim. If you say a star wears your product and the writer finds out the star was gifted a box and never opened it, you are done with that writer, and writers talk to each other. Only pitch connections you can document with a public post, a photo or a direct statement from the talent’s team.
The second mistake is pitching without clearance. Many celebrities have contracts with brands that compete with yours, and their publicists will push back hard on any story that suggests an endorsement. Before you pitch “[Star] loves our serum,” confirm with the star’s team that they are comfortable being named. A writer who publishes a story and then gets a call from an angry publicist will remember who sent it.
The third mistake is the follow-up flood. One follow-up, a day or two later on a planned story or a few hours later on a live one, is fine. Three is not. If a writer passes, take it gracefully and come back with a better story next month.
The fourth mistake is treating E! as the whole plan. Entertainment coverage is a spike, not a strategy. A single E! Online story can drive a burst of traffic and give your client a logo for the “as seen in” row on their site, but it rarely moves search rankings or AI answers on its own. Pair it with coverage in trade publications and outlets your buyers read, so the attention has somewhere to land. If you are working the wider entertainment circuit, our guides to pitching Variety and Billboard follow the same logic for their beats.
There is one more trap worth naming. Some agencies sell “guaranteed E! placements.” Be skeptical. E! Online does publish sponsored and affiliate content, which is clearly labeled, but editorial coverage is not for sale. If someone promises you an editorial E! story for a fee, ask exactly what will run, where, and with what label, before you pay anything.
Run the Three-Feed Test before you hit send
We built a quick filter for every entertainment pitch, and we call it the Three-Feed Test. It asks whether the story would hold up in each of the three places E! now lives.
The first feed is the article feed. Would a reader click this headline on E! Online? That means a recognizable name in the first five words and a fact that feels new.
The second feed is the social feed. Could E!‘s social team turn it into a post that earns comments? That usually requires a strong image or a short video clip. A text-only story about a brand rarely survives here.
The third feed is the search feed. Will people search for this in the next 48 hours? A celebrity’s name plus “outfit,” “jacket” or “where to buy” is searchable. Your company name usually is not, unless it is already famous.
A pitch that passes all three is a strong E! pitch. A pitch that passes two can work, often through the shopping desk. A pitch that passes one belongs somewhere else, and sending it anyway costs you credibility with a writer you may need later.
Run your next pitch through the three feeds tonight, cut anything that fails, and send the version that survives.