19 years later, Ellen Degeneres has finally said goodbye to her much-celebrated show – The Ellen Degeneres Show. DeGeneres invited Billie Eilish, Jennifer Aniston and P!nk as guests on the final episode which ended on a rather emotional note. The talk show host thanked everyone who made the show possible and got nostalgic remembering her journey that brought her to this day.
DeGeneres talked about how the show evolved through the seasons. “When we started this show, I couldn’t say ‘gay’ on the show. I was not allowed to say ‘gay.’ I said it at home a lot. ‘What are we having for gay breakfast?’. We couldn’t say ‘gay.’ I couldn’t say ‘we,’ because that implied that I was with someone. I sure couldn’t say ‘wife,’ and that’s because it wasn’t legal for gay people to get married, and now I say ‘wife’ all the time,” she noted. She was then honoured with a montage of the best moments from the show and her contribution towards the LGBTQ+ community.
It sure was an emotional moment for the fans as well, who had loved to see the host bring different guests and have fun with them in all those years. But with the good, comes the bad and the ugly. While we may always be grateful of the talk show host for bringing laughs, there were a lot of things that went wrong on the show too. Looking back, we talk about the show’s journey – the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good
The guests have always been the best part of the show. From everyone’s favourite celebrities to small wonder kids to people who needed a platform to express themselves, Degeneres invited people from all spectrums of life. Not just that, she even helped so many people who came on her show. A few examples would be when she donated 200,000 meals to animal shelters or when she raised $1 million for the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. Degeneres did a lot of good deeds throughout the show, all this while making everyone laugh with the celebrity pranks, the funny questions she asked and her amazing interviews. Not to forget, she was one of the few female, gay comedians who made it big on the small screen, with people calling her ‘female Seinfeld’.
The Bad
Many Twitter users felt that the talk show host was very mean to her fans. An incident that many recalled was how she used to make fun of the gifts on the show that her fans used to send her. She also often used extreme tactics to get celebrities to spill the beans on different rumours. For example, she once urged Mariah Carey to drink alcohol to prove she was not pregnant. The singer had a miscarriage and felt very uncomfortable talking about it on the show. Many other celebs including Celine Dion, Blake Shelton, Viola Davis, and Kylie Jenner were also insulted by Degeneres.
The Ugly
Finally coming to why the show ended and what made it to the ugly part of the show. Several incidents of the toxic work environment at The Ellen DeGeneres Show were reported back in 2020. Many former employees revealed that they endured racist comments from managers, were fired for taking leaves for family emergencies, and worked in a culture of fear and oppression. Degeneres addressed these allegations and apologised for the same. “I take that very seriously and I want to say I am so sorry to the people who were affected,” she said.
“I know that I’m in a position of privilege and power and I realized that with that comes responsibility, and I take responsibility for what happens at my show,” she added. However, people were not happy with just the apology. The viewership decreased by big chunks despite Degeneres bringing a range of A-list stars including Meghan Markle, Jennifer Aniston, Zac Efron, Diane Keaton, Kim and Khloé Kardashian, Kris Jenner, and Michelle Obama to the show. This truly meant an end for the show and brought us to the finale of it.
