FOX NEWS – Ellen DeGeneres announced on Wednesday she’s ending her long-running namesake daytime talk show.
“The Ellen DeGeneres Show” will conclude with its upcoming 19th season in 2022.
The decision comes after the talk show’s ratings have dropped dramatically in viewership following the star’s toxic workplace scandal that dominated headlines last year.
Per Nielsen’s ratings in March, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” lost over 1 million viewers over the course of the show’s current 18th season.
Eric Schiffer, an author and leading expert in media and branding who hasn’t worked with DeGeneres, told Fox News he believes the end started for the comedian when the misconduct allegations surfaced last summer.
“This is an example that proves audiences crave authenticity in their hosts. If they find out celebrities are fake, the celebrity faces catastrophe,” he reasoned.
Belva Anakwenze, principal of a Los Angeles-based management firm, echoed Schiffer’s sentiment.
“The ending of this show was inevitable. The toxic company culture, coupled with increased production protocols and costs, created the perfect storm for this completely disjointed show,” she told Fox News.
In August 2020, the ‘Ellen’ show went through an internal investigation by Warner Bros. after staffers made toxic workplace environment and misconduct accusations.
“The toll of the pandemic and a lackluster viewership weighed on production,” she observed.
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A timeline of the allegations against Ellen DeGeneres and her producers
By Rachel Yang, August 28, 2020
EW.com – Cracks in DeGeneres’ public persona began to appear in spring 2020, during the early days of the coronavirus epidemic.
March 20: Twitter users allege bad experiences with DeGeneres
Comedian Kevin T. Porter got the ball rolling with a viral Twitter thread encouraging people to share their experiences with DeGeneres or stories about her, whom he called “notoriously one of the meanest people alive,” seemingly alluding to long-festering but previously unsubstantiated rumors.
The initial tweet has since racked up more than 70,000 likes.
Numerous people responded, with one Twitter user saying that, while working for DeGeneres, she was told to never look her in the eyes; another person claimed that “every day [DeGeneres] picks someone different to really hate.” One person even alleged that DeGeneres tried to get her fired for wearing chipped nail polish while serving her food.
April 16: Ellen crew outraged by treatment during pandemic
The next month, Ellen crew members alleged that producers left them high and dry during the pandemic, and that they were told nothing “about the status of their working hours, pay, or inquiries about their mental and physical health from producers for over a month,” according to a Variety report.
The article also said crew members were later told they’d get major pay reductions, and their frustrations only increased when they heard the show hired a non-union company to help DeGeneres tape the show from her home.
A spokesperson for Warner Bros. Television, which distributes the show, told Variety, “Our executive producers and Telepictures are committed to taking care of our staff and crew and have made decisions first and foremost with them in mind.”
April-June: Backlash to DeGeneres’ comments about quarantine and Black Lives Matter
At least twice this year, DeGeneres sparked backlash for statements that many said came off as out of touch or ignorant.
In April, people called out the comedian for comparing coronavirus lockdowns to “being in jail,” given that DeGeneres presumably had the luxury of being able to shelter in place in her mansion … Click here to read more.
