Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show has finally come to an end. Her last episode aired on Thursday, and her final guest was Jennifer Aniston. Aniston was the first guest ever on The Ellen Show, so that’s how Ellen wanted to close it out. Ellen and Jennifer are friends in real life, and they often attend dinner parties and birthday parties at each other’s homes.
The big headline from “the final interview” is Jennifer making a reference to her divorce from Brad Pitt. Ellen asked Jen how she dealt with Friends ending and Jen quipped, “Well, I got a divorce and went into therapy. And then I did a move called The Break-Up. I just kind of leaned into the end.” She was actually in therapy for years before her divorce! But it was a good quip. It makes me wonder how the hell Ellen is going to handle the end of her show long-term. I feel bad for Portia.
Here’s Ellen’s final monologue (I didn’t watch this).
Here’s Ellen saying goodbye and paying tribute to her producers and staffers. I wonder how many older staffers are even still around following the internal investigations into bullying, toxicity and racism within the show.
Header photo courtesy of The Ellen Show, additional photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
In the context of cancel culture Ellen really managed to come out unscathed. When a huge controversy like that happens A listers try to keep a distance atleast immediately. She truly evaded all of that.
The public doesn’t forget though. Everything I’ve seen posted on social media about this has nothing but a ton of negative comments about her. She really killed her good will with everyone but her A-List friends, I think.
I don’t excuse any of the the toxic workplace culture and all the stories that came out last year but I am still a bit nostalgic to see it ending. I was 15 when it premiered in high school and I went through a serious depression in 10th grade. The Ellen Show was one of the few things I looked forward to in the afternoon on TV and while it didn’t cure my depression, it truly felt like one of the few things I still enjoyed at the time. I obviously had less time to watch as the show premiered during the day as I grew up and mostly watched Youtube clips.
Ellen was very energetic the first few years and truly seemed to be a positive person but at some point it became less fun for her and she became very jaded so she phoned it in for quite awhile. The scaring, the mean questions in interviews and trying to make celebs squirm… But it was a groundbreaking show given that Ellen wasn’t even allowed to say “gay” in the beginning which is insane to realize that now. Hopefully Kelly Clarkson and Drew Barrymore remain unscathed as they host their shows, I would hate to see them go down the Ellen route.
I still think she quit the show to put people out of work in a response to the bad press. She has the money and all the toys. So no her no job for you.
My guess is she will do a Letterman and do some one off specials over the years on a streaming service that will pay her oodles of money. And everyone will keep their mouth shut about how they are treated. If they want a paycheck.