Ellen DeGeneres to End Talk Show After Next Season -- 4th Update
May 12 2021 - 8:35PM
Dow Jones News
By Allison Prang and Benjamin Mullin
Ellen DeGeneres said she will end her long-running daytime talk
show after a nearly two-decade run that established the comedian as
an iconic figure in television.
Producer Warner Bros. Unscripted Television confirmed the show's
ending. Warner Bros. is part of AT&T Inc.
"Although all good things must come to an end, you still have
hope that the truly great things never will," Mike Darnell, the
president of Warner Bros. Unscripted Television, said in an emailed
statement. "It was and is an indelible piece of the television
landscape, and it will be sorely missed."
Ms. DeGeneres told The Hollywood Reporter the show's next
season, its 19th, will be her last. She said she is looking for a
new challenge.
Known for a mix of celebrity interviews, lighthearted games and
occasional dancing, Ms. DeGeneres's program has been a fixture in
daytime TV. The show, which is syndicated to TV stations across the
U.S., averages more than a million viewers and is a reliable
generator of viral video clips. Recent guests have included
comedian Eddie Murphy, TV host Michael Strahan and actor Priyanka
Chopra Jonas.
Ms. DeGeneres also has a game show on NBC called "Ellen's Game
of Games" that is slated to return on May 16.
Ms. DeGeneres came out as lesbian on the cover of "Time"
magazine in the late 1990s and was one of the first and most
high-profile openly LGBT entertainers.
Ms. DeGeneres's character in the ABC show "Ellen" also came out
as lesbian around the same time as her real-life announcement. The
episode was one of the most-viewed TV moments, drawing an audience
of more than 36 million.
Ms. DeGeneres' daytime show, which made its debut in 2003, is
one of the longest-running programs in the genre. Other such
long-running shows include "the Oprah Winfrey Show," which ran
nationally from 1986 to 2011, and "the Phil Donahue Show," which
ran for more than two decades.
Viewership of daytime programming has suffered in recent years,
part of a broader erosion in TV ratings as viewers cut the cable
cord and turn to streaming.
Ms. DeGeneres's show came under scrutiny last year when BuzzFeed
News reported on allegations of a toxic workplace. Ms. DeGeneres
apologized to viewers on air, saying, "I learned that things happen
here that never should have happened."
Ratings for Ms. DeGeneres's program started to decline after the
controversy. An average of 1.47 million viewers have tuned in to
each episode so far this season, according to Nielsen, a 39%
decrease compared to the show's previous season.
David McGuire, executive vice president of programming and
development at Warner Bros.' Telepictures production company, said
in a statement that Ms. DeGeneres's show remains one of the
top-rated daytime programs. He attributed some of the ratings
decreases to the Covid-19 pandemic, calling Ms. DeGeneres's program
"one of the longest running and most successful talk shows in
history."
Workplace behavior in Hollywood has come under increased
scrutiny in recent years after numerous allegations of misconduct
came to light in a culture that once considered the bad behavior of
executives and talent to be a cost of doing business.
Other stars of daytime TV have followed up their TV careers by
pursuing opportunities in other areas of entertainment, including
streaming video.
Judy Sheindlin, whose popular daytime reality show "Judge Judy"
is ending, is planning to launch a new reality courtroom show
called "Judy Justice" on Amazon.com Inc.'s IMDb TV ad-supported
streaming service. Oprah Winfrey, the long-reigning queen of
daytime talk, now presides over a media empire that includes
podcasts and a streaming-TV deal with Apple Inc.
"Oprah has remained just as strong of a media force without a
talk show as she was when she had one," said Wesley Hyatt, author
of "The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television."
Write to Allison Prang at allison.prang@wsj.com and Benjamin
Mullin at Benjamin.Mullin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 12, 2021 20:20 ET (00:20 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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