The slide started shortly after BuzzFeed News reported in July that several former and current staff members said they had confronted “racism, fear and intimidation” at work. Several employees also said producers had sexually harassed them. After an investigation by Warner Bros., the company that produces the show, three high-level producers were fired.
Ms. DeGeneres apologized to her staff in the summer, when the show was on hiatus. On her return to the air in September, she addressed her 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.”
That episode scored the biggest ratings for “Ellen” in four years. Then viewers started tuning out.
The on-air apology was also a rare moment of seriousness on a program known for its nonstop levity. For 18 years, it has been a daily hour of light jokes, cash giveaways and gossipy chats with Hollywood A-listers. Celebrities including Beyoncé, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Lange, Madonna, John Travolta, and Barack and Michelle Obama broke out their goofiest moves as they danced with the show’s star.
“Ellen” was a natural outgrowth of Ms. DeGeneres’s standup act. She started out as a lighthearted comic with an absurdist streak, a rare figure whose jokes were family-friendly in the blustery, macho comedy world of the 1980s, when the noisier Sam Kinison, Eddie Murphy and Andrew Dice Clay drew the crowds.
Quietly, she was a groundbreaker, even early in her career. In 1986, Ms. DeGeneres was the first female comedian making her “The Tonight Show” debut to be invited by Johnny Carson to sit by his desk, a gesture of respect. More momentously, as the star of the hit ABC sitcom “Ellen” in 1997, she announced that she was gay.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/12/business/media/ellen-degeneres-quit-talk-show.html
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