CHELSEA Handler’s second go-round as a late-night host on E! kicks off Monday.

“Chelsea Lately,” airing weeknights (11:30-midnight), will incorporate several elements from the comedienne’s “Chelsea Handler Show,” which aired from April through September of last year.

But it promises to be much different from that show says Handler – who’s appeared on the “Tonight Show” and “The View,” starred in Oxygen’s “Girls Behaving Badly” and wrote the best-seller, “My Horizontal Life.”

“We saved some of the good elements – we’re still doing field pieces, but we’re not as field-piece-heavy,” Handler says in her mile-a-minute patter.

“E! had a late-night niche and I want this talk show to be humorous and take all the starch out of starlets embarrassing themselves,” she says.

“When I watch an interview with Nicole Kidman or Renee Zellweger they couldn’t be less interesting. We’ll do a different take on those interviews – if people are watching my show they’ll be interested in hearing the inside scoop.

“We can’t just have people on who are hugely famous who’ll talk about nothing – we have to have a funny angle or do funny things. This isn’t brain surgery, obviously, it’s E!”

“Chelsea Lately” will tape every day at around 5 p.m. in L.A. – giving the show a topical feel in discussing that day’s celebrity events, Handler says.

“We’ll have different guests on every day – comedians, journalists, etc. – and we’ll have some ridiculous person on, like someone from the cast of ‘The Brady Bunch,’ who’ll talk about what’s going on with Lindsay [Lohan] or Rachael Ray.”

Handler has a 30-show commitment from E! for “Chelsea Lately” – and she’s girding herself for making a few enemies along the way.

“I’m not really worried about anyone coming back [to the show],” she says.

“This is not going to be one of [a celebrity’s] stops on the press tour – it’s gonna be the stop after their movie opens and it tanks.”