According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ellen DeGeneres intends to end her long-running daytime talk show in 2022.
“When you’re a creative person, you need to be challenged all the time — and, as great and fun as this show is, it’s just not a challenge anymore,” DeGeneres told THR in an interview published Wednesday.
“The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” which has won 64 Daytime Emmy Awards, is currently in its 18 seasons. The show will wrap after Season 19, according to the report. DeGeneres will discuss her decision in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, scheduled to air on Thursday’s episode.
“The Ellen DeGeneres Show” is produced by Warner Bros. Television, which, like CNN, is part of WarnerMedia.
The announcement that DeGeneres is leaving her talk show comes after a pandemic-plagued season. When Ellen DeGeneres was diagnosed with Covid-19 in December, the show went on a brief hiatus. Staffing changes were also implemented last summer after some producers were accused of creating a toxic work environment.
“If I was quitting the show because of that, I wouldn’t have come back this season. So, it’s not why I’m stopping, but it was hard because I was sitting at home, it was summer, and I see a story that people have to chew gum before they talk to me and I’m like, ‘OK, this is hilarious.’ Then I see another story of some other ridiculous thing and then it just didn’t stop. And I wasn’t working, so I had no platform, and I didn’t want to address it on [Twitter] and I thought if I just don’t address it, it’s going to go away because it was all so stupid,” she said.
One of the most difficult aspects of her decision, according to DeGeneres, is that she will miss her staff.
“Listen, this is my family. “They’ve turned into my best friends,” she added. “I come to work and I laugh every single day.”
DeGeneres stated that she is contemplating her next professional steps.
“I have some ideas but my agent is just like, ‘Why don’t you just sit still for a minute. You probably don’t even know how exhausted you are and what it’s going to be like to sit still.’ And I don’t know how long I’ll be able to do that because I’m like a Ferrari in neutral. I’m constantly needing to go.
“So, that’s my first challenge and then I’m going to figure it out. I wouldn’t have thought I was ever going to do a talk show when I stopped doing movies and sitcoms. I thought that that was the only path. And then all of a sudden there was a talk show that took me on this 19-year journey.”
