New York: American comedian, television host, actress, writer, and producer Ellen DeGeneres, on Wednesday (May 12) said that she was calling her American talk show culture "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" quits after 19 seasons anchoring "a TV staple that had ruined by toxic workplace allegations."
Started in 2003, the show has been a daytime television variety comedy talk show hosted by her. For its first five seasons, the show was taped in Studio 11 at NBC Studios in Burbank, California. And, from season 6 onwards, it moved to being taped at Stage 1 on the nearby Warner Bros.
Ellen, on Wednesday, said that her decision to bring the curtains down on her afternoon show had nothing to do with allegations in the past year of a workplace environment rife with bullying, racial discrimination, and sexual harassment.
She won dozens of Emmy awards for the show and has been a pioneer of the LGBTQ community in the United States since she came out as gay in 1997. Married to actress Portia de Rossi in 2008, Ellen considered ending the show for several years. Since September, the show's ratings have dived by more than one-half compared to last season, to 1.2 million viewers per show.
When the complaints from people working on the show came out last year, she acknowledged there were problems, apologized, and pledged to do better. Ellen said, "When you're a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged. And as great as this show is, and as fun, as it is, it's just not a challenge anymore."
Sources said that former and current staffers alleged that the show has been a stifling place to work. It has also been hit by flop ratings.
The 63-year-old host herself was not accused of wrongdoing but three senior producers were fired. Things got worse for her when the actor Brad Garrett, who appeared on her show six times, said last August, "Sorry but it comes from the top at the Ellen Show. Know more than one who were treated horribly by her. Common knowledge."
Ellen said that it was very hurtful to her. But if she was quitting the show because of that, she would not have come back this season. So, it's not why she's stopping. All she cared about was spreading kindness and compassion, and everything she stands for was being attacked. So, it destroyed her.
As per the sources, she was scheduled to have Oprah Winfrey as a guest on her show on Thursday to talk about ending the program. The final episode is scheduled for the spring of 2022.
According to Forbes magazine, she has been co-producer of her show and last year earned an estimated $84 million, which made her the 12th highest-paid celebrity in the world.
It has to be mentioned that the show went on a brief pause when she was diagnosed with COVID-19 in December.
"Definitely people have been saying, 'Why don't we just try to go a little longer?' But 19 years is a long time to do anything. Every day I'm not super smiley, but my intention is never to hurt anyone," she said.