The Soup

The show originally launched on July 1, 2004, under the title 'What The...? Awards', but its name was quickly changed to 'The Soup' to maintain name recognition with its predecessor, Talk Soup.

Starting June 2, 2014, The Soup began airing live episodes; originally planned to last only one month, the live format ended up continuing for the rest of the show's run.

After the show's cancellation was announced on November 18, 2015, a pre-filmed episode referencing 'killing Baby Hitler' multiple times was pulled from airing on the day of the November 2015 Paris attacks and was instead broadcast later, on November 27, likely replacing a planned clip show.

Several recurring on-screen characters were actually played by the show's own crew members, including the character Mankini, portrayed by writer-producer Dominic DeLeo, and a dancing maxi pad played by supervising producer Tess Rafferty.

Executive producer Edward Boyd's own chihuahua, Lou, made regular appearances on the show, especially during the 'Clip of the Week' segment introductions and alongside host Joel McHale in the show's original intro until it was changed in early 2010.

By 2006, The Soup had grown from a quiet start into the third highest-rated show on E!.

In July 2013, The Soup averaged 682,000 viewers, with about 56% watching a recorded version, while its 500th episode drew 909,000 viewers; the series finale on December 18, 2015 ended with 561,000 viewers.

The Soup spawned several spin-offs airing on Comcast-owned sister networks using the same studio and crew, including The Dish on Style (hosted by Danielle Fishel), Sports Soup on Versus (hosted by Matt Iseman), and Web Soup on G4 (hosted by Chris Hardwick), as well as a British version called Celebrity Soup hosted by Iain Lee.