Did plummeting rankings and poisonous office allegations result in the demise of ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Present’?
In Could 2022, the long-running speak present The Ellen DeGeneres Present got here to an finish after 19 historic seasons. For greater than twenty years, viewers watched because the comic busted out her finest dance strikes, charmed movie star visitors, and supplied the web with loads of viral moments.
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These lighthearted moments had been darkened when the present turned the goal of a number of poisonous office allegations. On the heart of many of those allegations was Ellen herself.
So, why did The Ellen DeGeneres Present finish? We hint the difficult ending.
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Why Did ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Present’ finish?
In a Could 2021 episode, Ellen informed her viewers why the present’s curtain was closing. “I really have felt like subsequent season was the correct time,” she mentioned, per the BBC. She added, “The reality is, I all the time belief my instincts. My intuition informed me it is time.”
On the time, the present was additionally coping with plummeting rankings.
However Ellen did not point out that half in her reasoning, nor did she carry up the poisonous office allegations that the present started grappling with simply 10 months prior.
What had been the poisonous office allegations surrounding ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Present’?
In July 2020, BuzzFeed revealed a report that detailed the alleged bullying, racial discrimination, and sexual harassment that reportedly went on behind the scenes of The Ellen DeGeneres Present. They talked to a number of former staff who all requested to stay nameless out of worry of retaliation.
One former worker claimed that Ellen’s “be sort” motto was all for the cameras. “That ‘be sort’ bulls–t solely occurs when the cameras are on. It’s all for present,” they mentioned.
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“I do know they provide cash to folks and assist them out, however it’s for present,” they continued.
Different staffers claimed that they weren’t allowed to talk to Ellen. These allegations echoed what comic Kevin Porter wrote in a viral X (previously Twitter) thread in March 2020. He claimed that Ellen is “one of many meanest folks alive” and referred to as on others to share their tales of the TV host being imply. The thread obtained over 2,000 replies.
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Whereas it was primarily government producers and senior managers who had been blamed within the BuzzFeed report for the office toxicity, former staff believed that Ellen needs to be held accountable because it’s her present.
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Did the poisonous work allegations issue into ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Present’ ending?
In a Could 2021 interview with Right this moment, Ellen shared that the controversy is just not why the present ended.
“If it was why I used to be quitting, I might haven’t come again this 12 months,” she mentioned. “I actually did take into consideration not coming again, as a result of it was devastating. It began with assaults on me and attacking the whole lot that I stand for and imagine in and constructed my profession round … I’m a sort particular person. I’m an individual who likes to make folks blissful.”
She additionally claimed that she didn’t know concerning the staffers’ complaints till she examine it on-line. Nonetheless, she did take some accountability.
“It’s my title on the present, so clearly it impacts me, and I’ve to be the one to face up and say this will’t be tolerated,” she mentioned.
The ultimate episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Present aired on Could 26, 2022. It featured movie star visitors Jennifer Aniston (she was the primary visitor on the present when it aired in 2003), Pink, and Billie Eilish.