The Soup is an American weekly half-hour comedy series on E! that premiered on July 1, 2004. It was a revamped version of the network’s earlier franchise, Talk Soup. The relaunch originally debuted under the title The What The…? Awards before quickly being renamed The Soup to maintain the brand recognition built by its predecessor.
The show’s format was built around clips — curated highlights of the week’s most ridiculous or unintentionally hilarious moments from television. The host provided sharp, sarcastic commentary between clips, punctuated by in-studio sketches. The Soup casts a wider net than its predecessor, Talk Soup, which focused narrowly on talk shows. Under the Soup banner, reality television became a primary target, alongside celebrity news, entertainment journalism, home shopping channels, local news, children’s programming, and even E!’s own content.
During the initial run (2004–2015), the show developed a rich repertoire of recurring segments and characters that gave it its own internal mythology. These included Reality Show Clip Time!, Chat Stew, Tales from Home Shopping, and What the Kids Are Watching. Recurring cast characters became fan favorites: Mankini, a man in a bikini top played by writer and producer Dominic DeLeo; a dancing maxi pad played by supervising producer Tess Rafferty; and Lou, executive producer Edward Boyd’s chihuahua, who became a show mascot.
The Soup underwent a significant evolution in June 2014, transitioning from a pre-taped format to a live weekly broadcast, adding a new layer of immediacy and energy to the show. The original 11-year run, hosted by Joel McHale, ended on December 18, 2015, when E! canceled the series. The franchise returned in February 2020 with a revived version hosted by Brazilian-born comedian Jade Catta-Preta. The revival ran 19 episodes before being quietly canceled in 2020, partly due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
