“When we started this show in 2003, there were no iPhones and no social media. Same-sex marriage was not legal,” DeGeneres said after taping the show’s final episode last month. “We saw the world change, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.”
There is no doubt how the cultural scene has changed since the comedian came out as a lesbian in 1997 in an interview with Time magazine, and at the same time as his character in the television series Ellen.
DeGeneres was revered as an icon of the LGBT+ movement, but they canceled their series a year later amid attacks. Five years later she reinvented herself as a talk show host.
DeGeneres’ guest list that included A-list celebrities was key to the show’s success, especially in more conservative regions of the United States.
For 19 seasons, stars from Hollywood and the pop scene have vied for places on DeGeneres’s couch, where they are invited to promote their projects and to be the subject, at times, of light jokes. Some have participated more than twelve times. Jennifer Aniston, the show’s first guest, returns this Thursday for the final episode.
However, rumors of a less jovial behind-the-scenes began to surface with a 2020 Buzzfeed post claiming that the show had a toxic work culture, including sexual harassment, bullying, and racism.
Three producers were fired, and DeGeneres was accused of not being so nice to collaborators in private as it was in public.
In May, the comedian announced the end of the program but denied that it was due to the accusations. “I need a new challenge,” she told her The Hollywood Reporter.