Ellen DeGeneres Is Ending Her Talk Show Amid Endless Backlash (But Reportedly Not Because of Backlash)

This morning, The Hollywood Reporter published an exclusive interview with Ellen DeGeneres in which the the embattled former queen of Daytime TV announced that she would end her ubiquitous talk show after 19 seasons and 64 Daytime Emmy Awards. Though she insists this has been the plan for a long time, and she’s just looking for a new challenge, it’s hard not to think the past year of revelations about the toxic culture of her workplace — and the accusations that her “be kind” persona is just an act — contributed to the decision in a major way. Ellen informed her staff about the decision yesterday, will sit down to talk with Oprah about it on tomorrow’s episode, and will end her run in 2022.

There’s no question that the daytime talk show scene is grueling. Ellen did 180 episodes a year for almost two decades. And she’s been saying for sometime that wife Portia de Rossi, especially, wanted her to enliven herself in more rewarding ways. She rightly notes that “19 years is a long time to do anything” and that with her money and influence, there are infinite ways she can contribute to making the world a better place. The environment, animals (and, somewhat incongruously, “design and furniture”) are the things she lists that she cares about and will focus on next, including her Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund which will open in Rwanda next year.

However, it’s impossible to read the announcement without contextualizing it with the backlash the world’s most famous lesbian has been facing, starting with the disastrous, viral interview in which Dakota Johnson accused her of lying about not being invited to her birthday party; and her dismissive defense of her friendship with former president George W. Bush after the two were shown on national TV pal-ing around at a Dallas Cowboys game in 2019. It only took Twitter a few hours after that game to resurface photos of the golden baby carriage Ellen gifted Donald and Melania Trump when their son, Barron, was born, and from there it was a landslide of Twitter threads from people who had worked for Ellen — or who knew people who had worked for Ellen, or who had heard from others in the industry — that she wasn’t nearly as nice as her public persona led people to believe. In fact, there were many allegations that she was downright cruel.

Things went from bad to worse when Variety reported on the terrible way Ellen’s producers handled moving her show to her home for Covid lockdown, including a refusal to communicate about hours or pay upfront and ultimately slashing their salaries by 60%, and hiring a non-union, outside tech company to set up filming at Ellen’s house. Then came a bombshell report from BuzzFeed that alleged a pervasive culture of “racism, fear, and intimidation” behind the scenes of her show. BuzzFeed followed with a second reported piece alleging “rampant sexual misconduct and harassment” from producers. Ellen ultimately issued an apology and said she wanted everyone on the show to be treated with respect.

Ellen addressed the backlash in this morning’s THR interview:

It was very hurtful to me. I mean, very. But if I was quitting the show because of that, I wouldn’t have come back this season. So, it’s not why I’m stopping but it was hard because… I wasn’t working, so I had no platform, and I didn’t want to address it on [Twitter] and I thought if I just don’t address it, it’s going to go away because it was all so stupid… So, there was an internal investigation, obviously, and we learned some things but this culture we’re living is [is one where] no one can make mistakes. And I don’t want to generalize because there are some bad people out there and those people shouldn’t work again but, in general, the culture today is one where you can’t learn and grow, which is, as human beings, what we’re here to do. And I can see people looking at that going, “You don’t care about what people [went through.]” I care tremendously. It broke my heart when I learned that people here had anything other than a fantastic experience — that people were hurt in any way.

There is, of course, no way to overstate what Ellen DeGeneres has meant for (white) lesbian visibility since she came out in 1997. She became the scapegoat of the Republican Party’s culture wars against gay and lesbian people in the late ’90s, and it nearly cost her everything. Her sitcom changed the landscape of LGBTQ+ TV, and over the course of 18 seasons, her talk show humanized lesbians to people across the world who didn’t know a single gay person. Her wedding to Portia de Rossi, which appeared in People magazine during the infamous Proposition 8 debate in California, was a watershed moment for marriage equality. She helped countless gay people accept themselves, and countless straight people accept that being gay is just part of life. That will never change.

But.

Time and time again, when Ellen has been confronted with her own bad behavior, or the bad behavior of senior staffers on her show, she has leaned into the refrain that she got into comedy in the first place to spread joy, that she just wants everyone to be as happy as they can be, that the reason she started a talk show was to share kindness and compassion with the entire world, that she knows what it’s like to be judged for just being who you are and she never wants anyone else to feel that way. It’s something Kate McKinnon recognized her for when presenting her with the Carol Burnett Award at the Golden Globes in 2020. What Ellen has continued to refuse to understand, however, is that in this post-Trump world, in this post-#MeToo culture, in this time of uprising for Black lives, it is not enough to simply publicly wish we could all get along. We can’t. Not because we’re mean, but because we’re arguing about the literal humanity of oppressed people who have suffered — and continue to suffer — endless, compounded violence rooted in white supremacy.

I’m grateful for Ellen. And I hope she does continue to try to do as much good as she can in the world. I also hope, along the way, she learns that calls for civility have most often been used to silence the oppressed, that kindness is not justice, and that being nice isn’t enough.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

21 Comments

  1. “calls for civility have most often been used to silence the oppressed”

    This is true. And yet it does not diminish the need for civility if we wish to create sustainable change.

    • This straight woman will never be famous and amazing like Ellen…
      What did this straight woman do fo the lgbt community? NOTHING
      What did Ellen for the community? MANY THINGS

      So, you must say thank you in your life and b grateful for people who did things!

  2. Good riddance to white trash like her. The fact she refuses to have trans people on her show and pals around with war criminals and fraudsters is a real problem. To me all of that out does the good.

  3. Ellen is a perfect example of what happens when you don’t let your views evolve and stay stuck in the mindset of “I know everything about oppression” despite becoming rich and powerful. It sucks that her legacy is tainted, but she chose for it to be this way by not being willing to grow and listen. Here’s hoping the door has been opened enough for queer, trans, POC to get their own shows. Personally, I think Patti Harrison would make a perfectly unhinged talk show host!

  4. Y’all…

    I know Ellen is far from perfect. But I’m a little sad about the vitriol directed at the person who has done absolutely the most of anyone for lesbian visibility, lesbian acceptance, and lesbian rights. I’m sad that our community can be so vitriolic.

    She’s done more good than I ever will, even though I am (I think) not a cruel person. Thank you.

  5. Bizarre levels of hatred directed at a brave gay woman who came out, lost her career and then came roaring back. The allegations against her person were a mish-mash of uncorroborated trivialities, such as complaints that she didn’t visit this or that guest in the Green Room before the show or that she didn’t chat during the commercial breaks. There were one or two allegations of more serious rudeness, such as yelling at a waitress years ago, but there’s no evidence that those allegations are actually true. And there were allegations about misconduct by a couple of producers, but no claim that Ellen knew about it or engaged in any misconduct herself. She definitely didn’t deserve this nasty treatment.
    The level of perfection that we demand of people is unsustainable.
    Also with pretty much everyone in the world there is great strength and serious flaws. She has done a lot of good in the world
    She put herself through a meat-grinder, paid the price of losing her career, and found a way to come back and triumph.
    I’ll always be grateful to her for having risked everything by advancing the cause for all of us.
    Best wishes to her.

  6. Well put. Wishing that we all “got along” shouldn’t be at the cost of people’s dignity. It’s an unfair demand to ask for civility too early when the footing hasn’t been equal to begin.

    It’s not that we “demand perfection” from Ellen, it’s that when she was given a chance to apologize, learn and grow, she redoubled. There’s little wonder why she’s faced so much backslash, she made her own bed by her arrogance.

    I hope this decision gives room to better projects ahead (I love Shamblebot’s idea!)

  7. Preach!

    I interrupted the whole family to read those last two paragraphs out loud.

  8. Funding a facility named after noted violent racist Dian Fossey in Rwanda is quite the choice while trying to recover from accusations of racism…

  9. This is such a perfect tribute, Heather. It’s hard to balance the incredible (in all senses) legacy of Ellen, and you did a great job.

  10. Thank you Heather for this nuanced take. It’s worth acknowledging the massive impact that she had earlier in her career, while also focusing on the ways in which she’s failed or refused to grow and change as time has passed and the world around her has changed.

    I hope you’re right that she’ll come to understand that calls for civility/”kindness” (which in her case seems to really mean “niceness,” which is Not the same) are so incredibly insufficient and can be truly damaging, but unfortunately based on her track record and the tendency for the rich and powerful to be insulated from honest feedback that they can’t just write off as “backlash,” I won’t be holding my breath.

  11. She is the only Lesbian that the whole world know…She has done so many amazing things for lesbians, lgbt community, poor people and you talk to Ellen that way…
    You must be grateful for Ellen, she has risked everything and she is a proud a LESBIAN

    But unfortunately, some of you are afraid of real Lesbians! Women who likes only women!

  12. So, all the people on TV are good but only Ellen is bad?
    Really??? If you want to believe that, then this is very sad!

    And if you care so much about the good tv, why don’t you speak about other famous people?
    Why only Ellen?

    • Oh my god these comments 😂

      YEAH HEATHER, WHY DON’T YOU EVER WRITE ABOUT OTHER FAMOUS PEOPLE, HUH

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