Is Ellen DeGeneres ready to shut down her talk show? ‘She feels she can’t go on’

Comedian Ellen DeGeneres wearing Celine poses in the press room at the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 5, 2020 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States.

Ellen DeGeneres’ show is apparently a massively toxic work environment full of racism, racist microaggressions, favoritism, harassment and sexual abuse. If you have a moment, please do read some of Buzzfeed’s most recent piece, featuring interviews with employees who detail how several producers have committed some very serious acts of sexual misconduct and sexual abuse. All of these stories coming out have a “tip of the iceberg” feel, and Ellen’s letter to her employees didn’t help matters at all. Making matters worse, Ellen’s celebrity colleagues are now calling her out too:

Brad Garrett is a problematic person – like Ellen – but I agree with him here. Lea Thompson does too, she apparently tweeted out something agreeing with Garrett (I can’t find it on her Twitter, so she might have deleted it). The point is that all of a sudden, Ellen DeGeneres finds herself in an odd position: she’s now so toxic that even her celebrity friends are emboldened enough to call her out. So is it any surprise that she feels like now might be the time to shut down her show permanently?

Ellen DeGeneres may be ready to call it quits on her daytime talk amid claims she perpetuated a toxic work environment, DailyMail.com can reveal. An insider at Telepictures tells DailyMail.com that the host is telling executives at Telepictures and Warner Bros that she has had enough and wants to walk away from the show.

‘She feels she can’t go on and the only way to recover her personal brand from this is to shut down the show,’ they said. ‘The truth is she knew what was going on, it’s her show. The buck stops with her. She can blame every executive under the sun – but Ellen is ultimately the one to blame.’

It comes as staff at the Ellen DeGeneres Show are hitting back at her for shifting the blame to her executive producers in an apology memo sent this week. ‘Don’t think for a minute anything she has said in that apology means anything. She created and then enabled this toxic culture to go on for so long,’ one staffer, who spoke to DailyMail.com on condition of anonymity, said. ‘If anyone had come to her or those three vile [executive producers] to complain, they would’ve been fired.’

‘Inside Telepictures we’ve had enough of her. She is a phony who does not practice what she preaches,’ our Telepictures source said. ‘The behavior of her show executives has been appalling, but [Ellen] is no better. In fact, she is the worst. It’s outrageous that she is trying to pretend that this is all a shock to her. The fish rots from the head, and Ellen is the head.’

Our Telepictures insider claims that Ellen ‘hates coming to work’ and ‘struggles to be nice to people and has utter contempt for her audience. She has been phoning it in for so long, and only staying for the money and celebrity it affords her. We’ve dealt with her BS for so many years, she’s not innocent at all, she’s not nice and the show is not filled with happiness.’

Our source claims that the backlash may cloud the show’s success in the future and it could be time to end things. ‘At this point, there’s really no way to save the show from this PR nightmare, so Ellen leaving may be the only way for this entire mess to go away. While it is our most profitable show in daytime, we no longer make the money we used to make from the show, as we have to pay her tens of millions of dollars per year to show up.’

[From The Daily Mail]

“She has been phoning it in for so long” – she really has. And yes, she can barely hide her contempt for her audience, her guests and for showing up for work in general. It feels almost inevitable that this profitable show – which was supposed to be so wholesome and family-friendly – would end up going down in a blaze of controversy, scandal and criminality. Executive producer Andy Lassner slapped back on claims that the show was ending, tweeting something about “Nobody is going off the air.” But that just sounds like producers trying to tell Ellen that she can fake-nice her way out of this, and I just don’t think that’s going to happen. She doesn’t even care that much about keeping her show, clearly.

Ellen Degeneres attends the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 05, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California © Jill Johnson/jpistudios.com

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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74 Responses to “Is Ellen DeGeneres ready to shut down her talk show? ‘She feels she can’t go on’”

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  1. Lisa says:

    Not sure if they will let her considering how much money the show makes but I can assume a bunch of people will be fired if they keep the show on air.

    • minx says:

      I don’t see how they can go on, she’s been busted. She’s bad at concealing her true feelings so she can’t fake her way through. And celebrities won’t want to bother when they can go on other shows.

      • Maxime duCamp says:

        Someone from the show (purportedly, they were anonymous but quoted in an article I read online) made the point that while the show makes a lot of money, Ellen’s salary is now so big that while the show it’s still profitable, the profit margin isn’t as large as one would think. They suggested bringing in someone new at a lower salary might work.

  2. Alexandria says:

    Well…she deserves it right? I just hope the staff get better opportunities after this.

    • Chica1971 says:

      Her brand? She wants to recover it? It’s toxic stuff.
      Yes,I hope they all find jobs but I guess this is why the show sucked in Covid. Most of the good staff was gone and she just ain’t the GOAT she thought she was

  3. Paperclip says:

    Ya know, although I still think Anne Heche is a teeny bit “off”, I really see her relationship w/Ellen in a whole new light now. Given all the talk about how controlling Ellen is, and the DL talk (for years) RE: Portia, gotta wonder about Heche’s breakdown while she was with Ellen.

    • sa says:

      I never understood all the stuff with Anne Heche. People break up all the time and it doesn’t make anyone a terrible person. But Anne Heche was vilified for breaking up with Ellen and then getting into a relationship with a man and it never made sense to me.

    • Scal says:

      Sadly, I think part of it was that she also has a mental illness and had a severe episode around the time they broke up.

      Then she got together with her husband within a month so that started a narrative of she was mentally ill that’s why she was a lesbian (I distinctly remember seeing tabloids say that). Her mother is very anti-gay and used to run a conversion camp. Combine that lack of empathy for mental illness with how society treated LGBTQ people then, and yea….

    • H says:

      I read Portia’s autobiography and got a weird vibe about Ellen. I don’t watch her show. I’ve always found her to be phony.

  4. Peachy says:

    Show her the Dory.

    • Noki says:

      HA!!!!!!

    • Hildog says:

      Haha. Here here! All the stories and blind items make her sound like a horrible person/boss.

    • Dimsum Mum says:

      Winner comment!

    • Kosmos says:

      She’s been mean and toxic all these years and many people had not realized it. She’s purely fake with all the nice talk when behind the scenes, she the mean person ugh…..please, Ellen, leave and take your show with you. We all supported you for so long, not knowing the truth, but I did hear grumblings years ago. Cannot believe you got this far and made all this $$$ off of people. Please just go.

    • Mabs A'Mabbin says:

      Ding ding ding! Don’t even give her a last dance.

  5. Noki says:

    Some of these celebrities speaking up now also went on her show several times and people are saying well they were also a part of the problem. However i think just like some of the workers coming forward they were contracted to do promo on her shows whether they liked or or not. No wonder some chemistry she had with some stars was way off, they both/all couldnt wait for it to be over.

  6. SamC says:

    I feel for the staffers that will have to find new jobs, not Ellen or the execs, who will all be just fine. It was telling when she didn’t have her usual team producing from home, as every other talk show host did, and cheaped out along with the lack of communication.

  7. Who ARE these people? says:

    When the horse dies, dismount.

  8. Winnie Cooper’s Mom says:

    This reminds me that I need to go back and watch that epic Dakota Johnson interview from Ellen about a year ago. Ellen is super condescending to her and Dakota doesn’t take it. I’m over Ellen and hope she goes away.

    • tempest prognosticator says:

      That’s the first thing I did after reading this. Dakota wasn’t playing and I love it.

    • Otaku fairy says:

      This.

    • Keekey says:

      That interview gave me so much love for Dakota Johnson.

    • K says:

      Ellen has been condescending for a long time. I was always kind of surprised that people read that as comedy, but finally people noticed that she’s lost the warmth she used to have and in recent years has lower energy and dead eyes, faking her way through it. She should just stop and do something else.

  9. TaniaOG says:

    I just really hated the way she apologized by directly blaming others.

    • Kosmos says:

      EXACTLY! Damage control, never admitting to anything, blamed it all on her “staff,” which makes her look even worse now. I remember back before she had a show, she was really hustling and didn’t have a big name yet. Then she got the big break. Maybe she’s been a mean nasty person her entire life and no one knew because she’s a comic. I don’t buy it that she just began being mean–I think it’s either part of your personality or not. Cancel her out.

  10. Case says:

    I tend to think her nastiness toward guests on air is because she’s over the show as a whole but didn’t want to admit it/give up the money/etc. At one point she seemed really did seem nice and like she enjoyed it, but the recent terrible behavior clearly spilled over onto those who worked there. She has an excuse to stop now. Time to pack it up.

  11. Lil says:

    She did not take responsibility in her apology and blamed others.

    Why aren’t her Hollywood friends defending her?

    She never has the same guest twice if they call Ellen out

  12. S2 says:

    Oh noes, the multi-millionaire (approaching billionaire) with one of the worst employer reputations in Hollywood, which is really saying something, is having a sad because she may no longer be on TV every day. And all she will have left to comfort herself with are her multiple gorgeous homes and the millions of dollars she’ll receive as a buyout to go away, to add to the hundreds of millions she already has. I’m sure I speak for 34 million Americans facing homeless this week when I offer my condolences to Ellen and ask, When will this hideous “cancel culture” end?

    • osito says:

      This response is perfection. I know the chef’s kiss emoji is probably already played out, but this is absolutely deserving.

  13. SJR says:

    Ellen is a huge phony.
    Go ahead and stop your show, no loss there.

  14. Anilehcim says:

    I’ve been reading horror stories about Ellen for YEARS on Reddit in particular, but remained skeptical bc I couldn’t wrap my head around the persona she puts out on her show being that different from what people claimed they’ve experienced from her. Apparently it’s all true and she’s as big a goblin as everyone says she is. I was similarly surprised to find out James Cordon is apparently a complete asshole also.

    I don’t watch her standup but I’ve heard one of her most recent ones was pretty much entirely about how her employees hate her bc she treats them like shit. Yikes.

    • February-Pisces says:

      I’ve heard about James cordon for years too. Apparently he will kiss the ass of any celebrity but treats non-famous regular people like crap.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      Am British and yes James Corden has always been a massive asshat, he only went to the US when his terrible behaviour cost him a lot of work in the UK.

    • Liz version 700 says:

      It’s funny that you mention this, some places are reporting that James Corden is a contender to replace Ellen. He doesn’t sound like much of a toxic workplace upgrade.

    • Kosmos says:

      Agreed, she has been the Biggest phony ever, but James Corden? What? Is he really mean, too? Please say its not true, I kind of really like him, wow…….

    • Lizzie B says:

      My friend’s husband worked with James Corden and said he drank a lot and had a terrible temper and used to push people up against walls and pin them with his arms over their necks, and then those production staff would be essentially paid off and moved on. My friend’s husband said he’d never work with him again.

  15. LORENA says:

    Why is Brad Garret problematic ? 😫 I didn’t know

    • Jaded says:

      He’s had some physical altercations with paps, said some pretty racially insensitive things to POC, had a bad drinking problem, he’s been a bit of a loose cannon over the years.

  16. LaUnicaAngelina says:

    This has been an interesting story to follow for a long time. I’d imagine would just call it quits now but who knows?

  17. Marjorie says:

    She showed her true ass when she told everyone she could be friends with GW Bush because she’s rich and elite like him.

  18. Intheknow says:

    Never liked the woman and I don’t know what Portia sees in her. People have been afraid of being called homophobic if they called out her toxic behaviour. Believe me, Ellen knew that too and capitalized on it to foster her toxic shit show of a work environment. She knew what was going on. She simply didn’t care.

  19. Jaded says:

    I hope Portia is doing OK through all of this and that Ellen isn’t bullying her around too. She seems like a sweet, gentle kind of person and Ellen’s occasionally done some things that made me wonder what there marriage is like, kind of mean-girling her on the show.

    • Lizzie Bathory says:

      I get that sense of Portia, too. There have been rumors that Ellen is very controlling with her, even preventing her from going in to work on certain days when she was filming the Arrested Development reboot. I worry about her.

    • Coco says:

      I have to wonder if Ellen has pressured Portia to not work? Spoilers: Portia only shows up for about a minute of screentime in the last season of Arrested Development. Looking at IMDb she’s filmed nothing else since 2017 (and one of those projects was a voice On an episode of Family Guy). It’d be so sad if she wants to work but feels like Ellen won’t let her.

    • Suzieq359 says:

      I feel like Portia is a victim of domestic violence. The Ellen stories have been out there for years, including her controlling Portia. Ellen has the power and money while Portia really hasn’t worked in many years allegedly due to Ellen’s damands.Portia looks like a shell of herself and not happy. Google pics of her over the last few years. You can see the sadness in her eyes. No reason to think that Ellen is any nicer to her wife than she is to her staff. Hopefully Portia can get the strength to get out if it is an unhealthy situation.

      • Jaded says:

        It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if we hear of a separation/divorce in the near future. It’s evident from a few videos I’ve seen that Portia is under Ellen’s thumb and is the subservient partner, but you can only put up with that sh*t for so long before the walls come tumbling down.

      • H says:

        I read Portia’s autobiography. She has an eating disorder. Ellen was not supportive at all during that.

      • Jayna says:

        I don’t believe Portia is controlled at all by Ellen. Portia is the talker in interviews with them or on Ellen’s show. She is clearly a strong woman and Ellen always seemed incredibly proud of her. And Portia announced she was retiring from acting Because she hit 45 and said she looked at what the next 10, 20 years would look like for her as an actress (probably the kind of roles), and wanted to pursue other passions, a business, and went on Ellen. She talked about it, leaving Scandal, and then laughed that after that she was put on episodes of Arrested Development.

        That was 2018. You can see in 2018 Portia on Ellen twice. The interview I mentioned about quitting acting and the one before that regarding her big birthday surprise for Ellen. The love was incredibly strong between Portia and Ellen in both of those interviews. You can’t fake that kind of love.

        In 2019, on Ellen for her birthday, to update about the birthday gift the year before, you could see the difference. They weren’t that lovey-dovey couple. Portia looked great, just back from a long trip. It’s not that they seemed in trouble in the interview. It’s that it was so different from all of their other times together. I noticed it. And Ellen’s humor, like other times throughout these last couple of years, seemed off. Biting, flat. I’ve noticed the difference. I do believe Ellen has been unhappy the last couple of years. It’s probably taken a toll on the marriage. Or, maybe the opposite: Portia is pulling away and Ellen’s unhappiness is because of that. Or a combination of both. Also, Portia is a lot younger.

        All three of those clips I’m talking about with Portia on Ellen’s show are on YouTube. Two in 2018. One in 2019.

  20. February-Pisces says:

    I have a feeling she’ll feign some sort of mental health battle as an excuse for this behaviour. She’ll say she’s battling depression or some sort of addiction, then say she’s taking time out to ‘deal with her issues’. My guess is she’s just an asshole and has been getting away with it for years. It’s weird how many funny, comedic, wholesome, television personalities have a dark and depressive side. I guess when people constantly expect you to be funny and upbeat all the time it eventually wears you down.

  21. Mariane says:

    I never liked her. Her phoney attitude and heavily edited show was clue to me. I doubt she was paying for the giveaways she had so that doesnt count+could be a way to market herself & imitate oprah.
    I doubt they’d cancel this show. Theyll either pay off some of the staff to stay quiet or fire someone higher up and pretend it never happened. Either way Ellen will say she didnt know or make promises then move on

  22. Moxylady says:

    Ok bye!

  23. Jenn says:

    Thompson tweeted out, “True story. It is [common knowledge],” in reply to a People headline quoting Garrett. Fans of the show appeared to be piling onto her on Twitter last night; they really do not want this to be true.

    I don’t know much about Brad Garrett, except that I really do not like his early standup, which strikes me as very unpleasant. That’s honestly why his remark carries so much weight for me — he and Ellen would’ve both come up through standup around the same time, so he must actually know her decently well. It’s pretty damning.

    Oh well, looks like Kristen Bell will be taking over the show sooner than she thought! lol

    • GoogleIt says:

      Funny you should say that because Kristen Bell has admitted to “phoning it in” with her roles on more than one occasion. (Her words.) And her “kind” schtick is fake, too. Sounds like she would be perfect for the job. (Except she keeps saying she doesn’t want to work.)

  24. nicegirl says:

    I just saw an ad for a Drew Barrymore hosted daytime talk show. I think audiences, celebs & guests will have a much better time with ET’s flower child friend.

  25. Sankay says:

    I don’t watch the show but did enjoy her standup back in the day.

    Isn’t this really about the business side of Hollywood and entertainment. Someone becomes successful and the powers that be try to make as much money as possible from the person. First it was the series than the talk show. What I’m getting to is that did they ask if EDeg was or is a people person? Can she handle that type of spotlight day in and day out. Obviously, someone who doesn’t want people looking at her has issues with being in a highly visible position.

    Yes, it’s partly her own fault but it’s also the mechanism in entertainment to forgo emotional issues to keep making money Off the “star.”

  26. Girl_ninja says:

    I’ll never for get going on air and telling her story about giving a dog to a staff members family because she and Portia couldn’t handle the pups energy. Rules stated that they were supposed to give the dog back to the shelter.

    The shelter went to the family and took the dog from the family. Because Ellen went on air and began crying and making excuses for not following the rules the shelter got death threats from the public.

    I know that she can’t control what other people do as far as those death threats are concerned but she’s the reason.

    The way she looked into the camera and cried and begged the shelter staff was disgusting. I believe she knew what she was doing. Selfish, careless, awful woman.

  27. MarcelMarcel says:

    So I follow @thekalenallen on Instagram and he was an employee of the Ellen Show. I love his sense of humour. however I could never handle the passive aggressive energy of that show so I followed his social instead. He’s rebranding and has spoken about wanting to do his own creative project. I’m excited to see what he does.
    Also I’m pretty sure Karen from MFM quit the Ellen show because they were unsupportive towards the writers strike.
    Stay sexy, don’t get murdered and please join your workers union.

  28. adastraperaspera says:

    I appreciate everything Ellen has done to mainstream the LGBTQ community just by being a host for years now on daytime television. Her presence has made a difference. That said, I believe she needs to retire and focus on philanthropy now.

  29. Meg says:

    other sites comment sections include many people saying they knew someone who was a PA and we’re treated horribly too. Others were audience members and they were told don’t touch or try to talk to Ellen as she dances through the audience and Ellen couldn’t get out of the studio fast enough. She should’ve retired years ago but I’m glad this is coming out so she’s held accountable

  30. Sumodo1 says:

    Once I saw the “surprise person in a box” gimmick a second and third time, I knew Ellen was a sadistic MF and I stopped watching the show.

  31. manda says:

    this makes me sad only because I remember ellen degeneres’s standup from like 1989. It was hilarious. this makes me sad

  32. Valiantly Varnished says:

    Ellen could have left the show years ago and still been rich AF. She is a prime example of when greed and fame take over. Imagine being angry and bitter to have to go to a job that pays you millions that you don’t actually need and could have left a long time ago and treating everyone around you like $hit because of it?? This is karma.

  33. Leah says:

    Always heard that she was a bully and hard to work for. Maybe it is time for her to move on, she has the money and fame and can retire quietly with her wife. She doesn’t have to work for the rest of her days.

  34. JK says:

    Am I the only one that thinks this is going to blow over and Ellen will open up her show in the fall or whenever production resumes with an apology? In any other year, this feels like it would be a serious blow and might lead to cancellation, but unless Ellen herself is accused of sexual misconduct, I don’t think this will be the topic of conversation two weeks from now.

  35. serena says:

    She’s been wanting out of that show for years, and clearly it shows, so she just should use this opportunity and do what she really wants to do (and maybe try to become a better person in the meantime).

  36. GoogleIt says:

    Scooter Braun came to her defense. I want to know about Reese, Aniston, Kristen Bell, Sarah Paulson, et al. What say them? They gush about Ellen to her face on her show.

  37. GoogleIt says:

    I had an “older person” tell me once how generous Ellen is because she gives away so much of her money and gifts to audience members and contestants. I was like, “You know, that money doesn’t come from her pocket. It’s from the show, network, and advertisers.” They had no idea. They honestly thought she was going to Target and buying people TVs. It’s no wonder people believe this kindness BS.