Fashion Police, Melissa Rivers as new Host, Timidly fails to deliver Joan’s famous Snark

The new “Fashion Police” team needs a little more time at the academy.

 

“Fashion Police,” the long-running clothing-and-style review that became the last and best showcase for the late Joan Rivers, returned to E! Monday night with Rivers’ daughter, Melissa, in the host seat on the couch.

          "Late" Jona Rivers  & Melissa Rivers "new host Daughter

Rivers and regulars Brad Goreski and Giuliana Rancic, joined by guests Nene Leakes and Margaret Cho, couldn’t have picked a better night to return, since they got to dine on the VMAs.

Talk about an all-you-can-eat fashion buffet.

Unfortunately, the new group collectively felt tentative, as if they weren’t sure just how to make all those dishes into a meal.

It’s not that there were no one-liners or that someone threw out all of Joan’s bottles of snark.

Assessing Rita Ora’s gown, Cho remarked, “I didn't know Vera Wang made a ‘Duck Dynasty’ collection.”

She also said Nicki Minaj looked like “she belonged in King Kong’s hand.”

Goreski suggested one of Miley Cyrus’ outfits looked like she was dressed in a box of Skittles.

But overall the night felt a little timid, and the reason, frankly, was Melissa.

She’s a much more traditional host than her mother, who died last September after a botched medical procedure. Rivers was conciliatory, pleasant, fair-minded and reasonable, which is fine, except her mother was more from the school of “Oh, c’mon. She looks like she dressed in the dark in a Dumpster.”

Neither approach is right or wrong. But Joan’s style did define the “Fashion Police” brand, and when almost everybody loves almost everything, well, you can just watch the live red carpet if gushing is what you want.