Ellen DeGeneres is repeatedly talking about ending her show.
It’s been a heavy last few months for the comedic talk show host. Over the past weeks, several allegations have come out against DeGeneres’ daytime talk show “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” that claims the entire production works in a “toxic” environment and hostile climate. Some of the allegations claim that employees have been fired over taking sick days and attending funerals, while others say workers are overall mistreated and overworked.
Now, unnamed insiders at Telepictures are saying the longtime host may be calling it quits after 17 seasons in the midst of all the drama, according to Daily Mail. “She feels she can’t go on, and the only way to recover her personal brand from this is to shut down the show,” an insider told the Daily Mail on Friday. “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.”
On Thursday, DeGeneres issued a statement regarding the allegations. “As we’ve grown exponentially, I’ve not been able to stay on top of everything and relied on others to do their jobs as they knew I’d want them done. Clearly some didn’t,” she said. “That will now change and I’m committed to ensuring this does not happen again,” she wrote. In addition to mistreatment, employers have also come forward with a slew of sexual misconduct, harassment and misconduct claims. “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,” a staff member told the Daily Mail, according to the New York Post. “If anyone had come to her or those three vile EPs [executive producers] to complain, they would’ve been fired.”
Insiders also claimed that Telepictures has voiced that they have “had enough of her.” “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,” a source said. Another source said that DeGeneres said she “hates coming to work” and “struggles to be nice to people and has utter contempt for her audience. They went on to say that DeGeneres “has been phoning it in for so long” and says that the host is “staying for the money and celebrity it affords her.” The insider said, “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,” the insider said.
