'Ellen DeGeneres Show' staff are 'freaking out' as host may quit or be canceled over toxic workplace incidents
'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' staff are reportedly "freaking out" after a series of allegations surrounding the show's host and her executives. The staff reportedly now fear that the controversy surrounding Ellen could result in "the show shutting down, Ellen quitting or worse the show and the host getting canceled." Sources familiar with the inside culture of the show have said that the team is concerned that allegations of a toxic work environment could force Ellen to quit.
The concerns come at a time when dozens of former staff of the show made sexual assault allegations against its producers. A source, while talking to the US Weekly, said: "Staffers are texting and calling each other freaking out as they fear Ellen [DeGeneres] will quit or that the show will be canceled. The show feels done. It's going to be very hard to turn this around."
A Telepictures insider reportedly told the Daily Mail that Ellen is telling executives at Telepictures and Warner Bros that she has had enough of allegations of rude behavior made against her and that she wats to walk away from the show. "She feels she can't go on and the only way to recover her personal brand from this is to shut down the show," they said. "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 speculation comes as staff at the show have hit back at the comedian for attempting to shift the blame to her executive producers in an apology memo released this week. One staffer told the outlet: "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. If anyone had come to her or those three vile [executive producers] to complain, they would've been fired."
"Inside Telepictures we've had enough of her," the source added. "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."
The insider also told the Daily Mail that Ellen now "hates coming to work" and "'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."
Claims surrounding Ellen's toxic work environment emerged earlier this month as one current and 10 former employees of the talk show accused the three executive producers, Ed Glavin, Mary Connelly, and Andy Lassner, of "bullying." Hours after the claim, Ellen issued an apology earlier this week. The apology came after it was revealed that WarnerMedia was investigating the show and is set to look into "staff experiences on set."
"At this point, there's really no way to save the show from this PR nightmare, so Ellen leaving may be the only way for this entire mess to go away," another source told the outlet. "While it is our most profitable show in the daytime, we no longer make the money we used to make from the show, as we have to pay her tens of millions of dollars per year to show up."
