Ellen DeGeneres to fix 'toxic workplace' scandal with celeb support, custom apologies, rehab tour: PR experts
Although there are reports of Ellen DeGeneres contemplating shutting down her talk show for good after reports of toxic workplace atmosphere including allegations of bullying, racism and sexual misconduct brought on by former and current staff members, according to PR experts, the comedian is not likely to give up on the successful long-running show that easily and might secretly be plotting her comeback.
According to public relations experts who spoke with VICE, although most people were not impressed by DeGeneres' lackluster apology to the accusers, where she refused to take full responsibility for what happened behind the scenes on her show, there is a possibility that she has hired a crisis PR specialist to help her win back the hearts of her fans once again and get back her sow to the peaks of success it once enjoyed.
HeraldPR President Juda Engelmayer—who’s done crisis work for Paula Deen, Luann de Lesseps, and Harvey Weinstein—and Infinite Global founder Jamie Diaferia, whose firm specializes in crisis PR for corporations, told the outlet that DeGeneres might turn to the standard handbook for damage control as the first step to making a comeback. Engelmayer and Diaferia pointed out that it was no coincidence that celebrities like Katy Perry, Diane Keaton, and Alec Baldwin have all issued statements in support of DeGeneres as it was an important publicity tactic that can be orchestrated by PR experts.
“I'm guessing that somebody is using their Rolodex to get in touch with as many people as they can, people they know who have had good experiences with her, people who have been supportive in the past,” Diaferia said. “In this case, you see that it all started on one particular day, so I'm guessing it was a fairly coordinated effort.”
The next step was to personally reach out to all the alleged victims who claimed they had an unpleasant experience with her with crafted responses tailored to each incident. DeGeneres might even be advised to call those she reportedly slighted personally in an effort to “keep it contained privately,” Engelmayer said. “If she's working with a qualified crisis communications firm, she is probably sitting down with an Excel spreadsheet, and she's doing bullet points on this person, that person, and the other person,” Engelmayer said. “If you're not doing that, you're foolish.”
Also, if she is planning to save her show, it wouldn't be remiss to think that DeGeneres' next apology would be coming really soon and that too on the location that needs saving (well not literally, since she is still quarantining and recording the show from her home.) The host might even dedicate an entire episode of the show to addressing and clarifying the rumors to gather sympathy from her audience as support from an increasing number of her celebrity friends roll in. She might even invite her former or current employees to speak to her Live on-air as she cleared the air and convinced them of the positive changes that will be implemented on her show henceforth.
"You have to start by addressing the elephant in the room,” Diaferia said. “At a minimum, she needs to talk about what happened, why what was going on was not okay, and how it's going to be different. You script it as if those words will reach the public. If it's behind-the-scenes work, you can't just do that in a vacuum. You have to let the world know in some way that this is going on, that she's contrite.”
When DeGeneres’s reputation is on the mend, she might start planning her “rehabilitation tour,” doing a handful of interviews on programs like 'The Today Show' where she can state prepared remarks about how much she learned from the crisis, how it made her live up to her own ethos of always being kind; and how she was committed to doing better.
“You can pick [an interviewer] who's a little more friendly, but also credible, that will give you some tough questions, but not too tough,” Diaferia said. “Then you carefully script out the messaging—not so that it appears to be disingenuous, but so that you at least have a sense of what you're going to say, and it's very carefully controlled.”
After spending upwards of $100,000 on a crisis PR specialist, DeGeneres' comeback will be a success, Diaferia said, and she will be able to enjoy the kind of fame being one of the highest-paid talk show hosts on television, that is, if the WarnerMedia’s investigation doesn't yield disastrous results for her. “Give it a few months,” Engelmayer said. “Americans, and particularly celebrity-watchers, have a short attention span for scandal if they like you. As long as you're doing better, and keeping me happy, and keeping me entertained, I'll forgive you.”