Is Ellen DeGeneres Show over after sexual abuse report? Host hates working, 'has contempt for her audience'
Troubles for Ellen DeGeneres and her show are piling up, with the latest report of sexual misconduct allegations against her showrunners and executive producers seem like the final nail in the coffin of the comedian's TV career. After the explosive Buzzfeed report came out on Thursday, July 30, sources told Daily Mail that the talk show host is contemplating shutting down her show for good.
An anonymous source at Telepictures said that the host is telling executives at the production house and Warner Bros that she wants to walk away from the show because she has had enough of the controversy which ranges from racism to bullying and now sexual harassment. “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 outlet 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.”
The explosive Buzzfeed report, which included names like Kevin Leman, the show’s head writer and executive producer, executive producer Ed Glavin, and show’s co-executive producer Jonathan Norman, was published just hours after DeGeneres wrote an open apology letter to her staffers, addressing allegations of a toxic workplace atmosphere. "On day one of our show, I told everyone in our first meeting that The Ellen Degeneres Show would be a place of happiness - no one would ever raise their voice, and everyone would be treated with respect. Obviously, something changed, and I am disappointed to learn that this has not been the case. And for that, I am sorry," DeGeneres said in the memo. "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. That will now change and I'm committed to ensuring this does not happen again."
However, her staffers were not happy about the fact that the host, whose name is on the show, tried to shift the blame to her executive producers in the memo. ''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 said. ''If anyone had come to her or those three vile [executive producers] to complain, they would've been fired. Whenever she'd tell viewers to choose kindness, I'd throw up a little in my mouth because she always chose the opposite,'' they added.
Daily Mail's source added: ''Inside Telepictures we've had enough of her. She is a phony who does not practice what she preaches. 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."
Apparently DeGeneres herself has lost interest in running her show and ''hates coming to work.'' It also seems like she puts up a good front as she ''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," they 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."
It is important to mention that the show also has previously faced the possibility of cancellation, in early July, DeGeneres’ production company reps released a statement, saying, “Telepictures can confirm it’s untrue.”