Ellen DeGeneres Tapes Final Show: ‘Greatest Privilege of My Life’
Ellen DeGeneres’ final season has wrapped. On Thursday (April 28), the comedian, announced on Twitter that she had taped the final episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which will air on May 26.
Today we taped the final episode of The Ellen Show which airs on May 26th. pic.twitter.com/akuukE3fw8
— Ellen DeGeneres (@EllenDeGeneres) April 29, 2022
DeGeneres, 64, then went on to praise her decades-long gig, calling it “the greatest privilege of my life.”
“When we started this show in 2003, the iPhone didn’t exist. Social Media didn’t exist. Gay marriage wasn’t legal. We watched the world change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not,” she wrote.
When we started this show in 2003, the iPhone didn’t exist. Social Media didn’t exist. Gay marriage wasn’t legal. We watched the world change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.
— Ellen DeGeneres (@EllenDeGeneres) April 29, 2022
“But whatever was happening, my goal was always for the show to be a place where we could all come together and laugh for an hour. Being invited into your lives has been the greatest privilege of my life and has brought me incredible joy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
But whatever was happening, my goal was always for the show to be a place where we could all come together and laugh for an hour. Being invited into your lives has been the greatest privilege of my life and has brought me incredible joy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
— Ellen DeGeneres (@EllenDeGeneres) April 29, 2022
As we previously reported, a July Buzzfeed News exposé detailed allegations of a toxic workplace. DeGeneres said at the time, “Unfortunately, I learned that through the press. And at first, I didn’t believe it because I know how happy everybody is here and how every guest talks about, ‘Man, you have a great place here. Of all the talk shows I’ve done, everyone here is so happy.’ That’s all I’ve ever heard.” The host, who’s built her brand on the motto “Be Kind,” opened season 18 last September with a lengthy apology, telling viewers, “I learned that things happen here that never should have happened. I take that very seriously. And I want to say I am so sorry to the people who were affected.”
DeGeneres said there was an internal investigation, and that it broke her heart when she learned that people working for her had “anything other than a fantastic experience — that people were hurt in any way. I check in now as much as I can through Zoom to different departments and I make sure people know that if there’s ever a question or ever anything, they can come to me and I don’t know why that was never considered before. I’m not a scary person. I’m really easy to talk to. So, we’ve all learned from things that we didn’t realize — or I didn’t realize — were happening. I just want people to trust and know that I am who I appear to be.”
According to The New York Times, viewers tuned in for the apology that gave the opening show the highest ratings its seen in four years, but they didn’t stay, tuning out soon afterward. Ellen has lost more than a million viewers since September, according to Nielsen ratings, averaging 1.5 million viewers over the last six months, down from 2.6 million in the same period last year. The one million viewer loss translates to a 43 percent decline, representing a steeper drop than any of its competitors.
As for her next move, Ellen says she has some ideas but her agent suggested that she “just sit still for a minute. You probably don’t even know how exhausted you are and what it’s going to be like to sit still.” Ellen doesn’t think she will be back on a sitcom, calling them “a walk in the park” compared to her 180 shows a year. Movies, however, are a different story, as Ellen wants to do movies “for sure. If there were a great role, I’d be able to do that, which I’m not able to do now. I’m opening up my campus in Rwanda next year and I want to be more involved with conservation and everything that matters to me as far as the environment and animals.”
