Ellen DeGeneres has made the call and revealed that her day-time television talk show, Ellen, will come to an end next year, after almost two decades on the air.
Coinciding with the end of her contract, DeGeneres revealed the reason behind calling it a day on the show in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“When you’re a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged — and as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it’s just not a challenge anymore,” she said.
The news comes after allegations of a toxic workplace environment were made against executives on the show, in a report given by Buzzfeed.
Following the report, ratings for Ellen hit a new slump, even though DeGeneres herself apologised for fostering such a workplace even though she apparently learned of the allegations through the press.
However, DeGeneres says that the controversy didn’t impact her decision – “(If) I was quitting the show because of that, I wouldn’t have come back this season” – and in fact has apparently been in the works for some years.
“I was going to stop after season 16. That was going to be my last season, and they wanted to sign for four more years and I said I’d sign maybe for one,” she said.
“They were saying there was no way to sign for one. ‘We can’t do that with the affiliates and the stations need more of a commitment.’ So, we [settled] on three more years, and I knew that would be my last. That’s been the plan all along. And everybody kept saying, even when I signed, “You know, that’s going to be 19, don’t you want to just go to 20? It’s a good number.” So is 19.”
Read the full interview here.
