TheQuartering [3/23/2021]
Ellen’s workplace is apparently a toxic environment. Thus, she must be cancelled.
Ellen’s talk show is losing viewers and revenue after its workplace toxicity scandal.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show host, 63, used Tuesday’s show to share a health update on her wife, Portia de Rossi, who’s “feeling much better now” after an emergency appendectomy. However, behind-the-scenes, DeGeneres’s show is struggling, having seen a large ratings decline — of more than one million viewers — in its 18th season.
The New York Times reports that since September — when DeGeneres returned to the air with an apology after the show’s scandal led to an investigation and firings — the program has averaged 1.5 million viewers. That is down from 2.6 million during the same time last year, per research firm Nielsen.
While COVID has impacted shows — and she wasn’t immune, contracting the virus in December, leading to an unplanned hiatus — the Ellen Show‘s is a steeper drop than any of its competitors. Typically it rivals Live: With Kelly and Ryan (which has 2.7 million viewers), but now it’s closer to shows hosted by Kelly Clarkson (1.3 million) and Tamron Hall (1.1 million).
A loss of ratings, of course, is a loss of revenue. From September to January of the 2019-20 season, Ellen brought in $131 million from advertisers, per the research firm Kantar. For the same time period of the 2020-21 season, it was $105 million — $26 million less.
There’s been a lot of speculation over how things would play out for the talk show host — whose brand is to “Be Kind” — after her show employees claimed they experienced “racism, fear and intimidation” on the set.