Ellen DeGeneres facing 'celebrity brand suicide' over not taking responsibility for toxic work culture on show
Fresh allegations against Ellen Degeneres' Show -- this time of toxic workplace culture including bullying and racism -- might lead to the brand suicide of the famous daytime talk show host's empire. We reported earlier that at least 10 former staff members and one current employee of Ellen DeGeneres' talk show spoke to Buzzfeed anonymously and claimed that the show's mantra "Be Kind" was only for the TV. "That 'be kind' bulls**t only happens when the cameras are on. It's all for show. I know they give money to people and help them out, but it's for show," one former employee said.
Though most ex-employees made no specific claims against DeGeneres and blamed executive producers and other senior managers for the toxic work culture, one former staffer said that at the end of the day, it is Ellen's name on the show. "She really needs to take more responsibility. If she wants to have her own show and have her name on the show title, she needs to be more involved to see what's going on. I think the executive producers surround her and tell her, 'Things are going great, everybody's happy', and she just believes that but it's her responsibility to go beyond that," the unnamed staff told the outlet.
Speaking to Fox News, Eric Schiffer, chairman of Reputation Management Consultants, weighed in on the latest allegations. "Authenticity is king with celebrity brands and these continued leaks are lacerating her credibility and mangling her capacity to continue to try to be positioned at a high moral ground," Schiffer said. "It's celebrity brand suicide."
So far the comedian, who is known for her charity and generosity, has not directly addressed the accusations and instead her showrunners have taken the main brunt of it all. "For the record, the day to day responsibility of the Ellen show is completely on us. We take all of this very seriously and we realize, as many in the world are learning, that we need to do better, are committed to do better, and we will do better," the statement released by the show executives to Buzzfeed read in part.
Schiffer said this was not a good sign, as the allegations, regardless of whether they exist on the production side or not, ultimately fall on her. "Ellen is unwilling herself to accept full responsibility and is trying to get her senior producers to take the full hit which further shows a lack of character," Schiffer said. "A leader steps up and learns from it, and now we're learning that Ellen -- who is considered to be squeaky clean in her persona -- may be leading an organization that has stone-cold crazy racism going on within it. It's horrifying to think about."
Also, it was nearly impossible for anyone to believe that DeGeneres was not already aware of the alleged abusive behavior going on behind the scenes on her show, Schiffer added. "The chance of Ellen not knowing that this is going on is the same possibility that there are people still in America that don't know Donald Trump's name," the brand expert said.
The fact that the allegations against DeGeneres maltreating her guests and employees are not going away has become alarming to the advertisers of the show. "I think the future of the show is in serious danger because senior executives that must continue to bring in advertising dollars are not going to push product that will cause their clients to run," Schiffer said.
He added: "Given the continued smoke coming out of the camp and my own insights into the hyper-careful nature of executives, I think that the probabilities of the 'Ellen' show becoming a mushroom cloud is higher than ever."