“The Ellen Show” Staff Says Show Is Experiencing A Lack Of Sponsors, Talent, And Viewership Amid The Sexual Harassment Scandal

A little over two months into the return of “The Ellen Show,” sources and staff workers have allegedly recently revealed to Buzzfeed News that the award-winning show has lost sponsors, ratings, and celebrity bookings following the sexual harassment scandal.A current employee revealed that this year had seen a lack of advertisers compared to previous years, mainly due to the pandemic.

“We’re trying to be a content house, but we have no content,” the employee said.

They also informed the digital news outlet that the show has struggled to book celebrity guests.

“For the first time, everyone was starting to ask us, ‘If you have an idea, tell us because we will listen. If you have an idea for a celeb, even if they’re not A-list or famous, we’ll take anyone who will bring us numbers and eyeballs,'” the employee said. “That’s when they started to be real with us and essentially said, ‘Give us anything because we need help.’ Our old strategy doesn’t work anymore.”

Entertainment publicists have anonymously stated that they have scaled back on the number of clients that they book for the show, as they previously have.

“They also said some of their clients have specifically said they don’t want to appear on the show, even over videoconference. They also said they’re wary of booking their clients for the current season of ‘Ellen’ because they don’t want them to be a part of ‘her comeback tour,'” wrote reporter Krystie Lee Yandoli.

One publicist even admitted:

“I wouldn’t set up anyone on her show right now to do anything that could possibly cause them more negative headlines,” one publicist told BuzzFeed News anonymously.

“You have to tread so carefully with your clients and your clients’ reputations, so you don’t want to put your client in any line of fire sympathizing with someone that any community or anyone would feel bad about. We’re not going to align anyone with Ellen.”

Another publicist stated that The Ellen Show is not what it once was, and with ratings being low, they don’t see the benefit of booking talent for the show.

“The feedback we’ve been getting is that Ellen is no longer a first choice for talent,” one publicist said. “It’s not unique to one person. We’ve received feedback from other publicists as well as talent. Nobody likes feeling this emotional betrayal from someone who literally built a brand on niceness. Getting over that hump is a much bigger hurdle.”

Last year, Ellen DeGeneres signed a deal to continue her talk show through 2022 as executives maintain to viewers that Ellen “isn’t going anywhere.”