Why The Ellen Show Is Coming To An End - 7 Things To Know

The Ellen Show ends after 19 years: After the scandal that hit Ellen DeGeneres’ popular daytime talk show, the comedian-host has decided her upcoming season, the show’s 19th, will be the last for the long-running television show. DeGeneres is said to have informed her staff on May 11 that the Emmy-winning The Ellen DeGeneres Show will go off air next year.

“When you’re a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged — and as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it’s just not a challenge anymore,” DeGeneres told The Hollywood Reporter.

Here's why the show is near to its end after running for 19 years, winning more than 60 Emmy awards:

1. The comedy show made its debut in 2003 and since then, the comedian-host has anchored 18 seasons. DeGeneres admitted that as a creative person, the show no longer challenges her anymore. “I just needed something to challenge me”, said DeGeneres in an interview with THR.

2. In 2019, DeGeneres had revealed that she had been contemplating to end the gig after season 16 but decided to sign on for three more years. "I knew that would be my last. That was the plan all along," she added. The Ellen Show will officially go off air in 2022.

3. The move came after the show's viewership dropped by 1.1 million people this season, from 2.6 million viewers to 1.5 million viewers, Nielsen data shows ratings hit after the allegations of running a toxic workplace, reported by the New York Times.

4. DeGeneres in a New York Times profile in 2018, revealed that her wife Portia de Rossi, an actor, had been encouraging her to move on from hosting the show while her comedian brother, along with executives at Warner Bros., had urged her to continue.

5. Last year, three top producers came out slamming the comedian as a “toxic host”. They exited the show and DeGeneres had to apologise after reports of a toxic work environment, promising ”a new chapter.” Meanwhile, numerous current and former employees had accused its top executives of sexual and workplace misconduct and making racially insensitive remarks. However, DeGeneres also said that the decision to move on had nothing to do with the controversy. She said the allegations “almost impacted” the show but if she was quitting the show because of that, she wouldn’t have come back this season. They aren’t the cause of her departure, she expressed.

6. She is all set to sit down with Oprah Winfrey to discuss her departure on the May 13 episode of Ellen. The show has yet to announce a date for its Season 19 premiere.

7. With DeGeneres vacating her spot, Kelly Clarkson, host of The Kelly Clarkson Show, could be a replacement in the 3 p.m. time slot, according to some sources.

DeGeneres has reportedly earned $84 million in annual income, per Forbes, was the recipient of the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2015 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom under Barack Obama in 2016. She scripted history on national television when in the 1990s her character came out as gay.

Feature Image Credit: WTHR