It’s taken less than 24 hours since news of The Ellen DeGeneres Show ending for Ellen to start talking about cancel culture. In her first interview since announcing that her daytime talk show would end in 2022, after season 19, Today’s Savannah Guthrie asked the host whether she felt like she was “being canceled,” referring to previous allegations that DeGeneres fostered a toxic workplace. “I really didn’t understand it, I still don’t understand it,” DeGeneres replied, going on to call the allegations “too orchestrated” and “too coordinated.” In her full interview with Guthrie, posted to Today’s YouTube, DeGeneres added that “it felt like somebody really did not want this show to come back.” She continued, “It was fine, like for 17 years, and then suddenly someone was like, ‘Hey, you know what would be good clickbait? Is if the “be kind” lady wasn’t kind. What if we, what if we’ — and it was so easy, to use that.”
DeGeneres said on Today that she was shocked “to read in the press about a toxic work environment, when all I’ve ever heard, from every guest that comes on the show, is what a happy atmosphere and how what a happy place this is.” The allegations, to be clear, pertained to treatment of staff on the show, not guests. DeGeneres insisted, as she previously has, that she “had no idea” of the allegations and that employees should have told her. She also told Guthrie the allegations “did feel very misogynistic.” However, she insisted that the claims against her set didn’t cause the end of her talk show — in line with her previous quote to The Hollywood Reporter, she said she was ending the show because “it’s just not a challenge anymore.” DeGeneres told Guthrie, “If it was why I was quitting, I would’ve not come back this year.” She went on to add that her drop in ratings, partially an effect of the allegations against her, also had “nothing to do with why I’m leaving.”
