“Ellen” calls it quits

Brad Beam

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May 12, 2021, 11:32:29 AM5/12/21

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https://ew.com/tv/ellen-degeneres-talk-show-ending/

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PGage

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May 12, 2021, 2:04:24 PM5/12/21

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Having not watched this show, I don't know how to interpret her state reason for discontinuing “the show is no longer a creative challenge.” Is this just a dodge to allow her to deny it is because her “Be Nice” cover was blown, or is she saying she has been running on automatic?

She lost 1.1 million viewers in current season - more than a 40% drop. Is that more or roughly same as comparable daytime talk shows.

On Wed, 12 May 2021 at 8:32 AM Brad Beam <b.b...@suddenlink.net> wrote:

https://ew.com/tv/ellen-degeneres-talk-show-ending/

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Mark Jeffries

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May 12, 2021, 2:37:26 PM5/12/21

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The most recent syndicated ratings show her in a four-way tie for third place among talk shows with Maury, Wendy Williams and Kelly Clarkson--Clarkson's ratings are steadily getting higher than last season (although she and Ellen are on the same station in a lot of markets). If they say her ratings growth is because of that stupid air horn sound a 40-year-old should not be making (and she's doing it on the "The Voice" live shows now), oy... Dr. Phil and Kelly and Seacrest are tied for first.

For the record, in Chicago at 3 p.m. Ellen's against Dr. Phil, "Inside Edition" and "Jeopardy!", "Daily Mail Live," Judge Mathis, "Divorce Court" and syndication's top-rated show, "Family Feud."

I'm curious if she is going to be continuing "Ellen's Torture Chamb--Game of Games" for another season.

Mark Jeffries
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Kevin M.

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May 12, 2021, 2:40:52 PM5/12/21

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I recall working on the (thankfully) short lived DreamMaker talk show hosted by Richard Simmons. For those who (mercifully) missed it, each episode Simmons would have on a guest who would tell his/her sob story about some event which caused their entire life to come crashing down, after which Simmons would give that person an appliance of some kind. At the conclusion of every episode, Simmons would read a letter from a previous guest thanking him for the appliance.

Except for one day. They made it to the final commercial break, which is when the producers pulled Simmons aside and talked to him. When he came back from commercial, a hysterically crying Richard Simmons had announced that the series had been cancelled. Yep, the show was so bad that they cancelled it mid-episode.

I mention this because the official announcement stated that Simmons voluntarily left the series to focus on other creative challenges. So, I’m thinking she was shit-canned.

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Tom Wolper

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May 12, 2021, 3:35:28 PM5/12/21

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On Wed, May 12, 2021 at 2:04 PM PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:

Having not watched this show, I don't know how to interpret her state reason for discontinuing “the show is no longer a creative challenge.” Is this just a dodge to allow her to deny it is because her “Be Nice” cover was blown, or is she saying she has been running on automatic?

She lost 1.1 million viewers in current season - more than a 40% drop. Is that more or roughly same as comparable daytime talk shows.

When this subject came up last year, I did some research and saw her show had been on the air for 17 years. We have to acknowledge that's an extraordinary amount of time for this genre of daytime talk show. Most of these shows last only a year or two. So when a phenomenon like Ellen shows up the network or syndicator wants to keep the show going at all costs and at each contract negotiation the host gets lots more money and more power. So after 17 years Ellen is getting tons of money to continue. Maybe she's burnt out - when Craig Ferguson made his announcement of leaving the Late Late Show he said he felt like he'd done all he wanted a couple of years before and when he told CBS they gave him an incentive to stay and he did a couple more years without making much of an effort.

The other part of those deals is that the show has to continue to put up high numbers. If an agent is pushing Actress X to be the new hot daytime talk show host the network/syndicator has to make the decision: keep Ellen with her high costs and solid ratings or take a chance with X who will come much,much cheaper but might take a long time to reach Ellen ratings or might not ever reach them. With each new contract the pressure rises as the money grows and with the ratings drop they might have come to the point to go cheap and take a chance on a new show.

I don't doubt there is some level of burnout with Ellen. The world in general, especially technology and the entertainment business have gone through massive sea changes in the 17 or 18 years she's had her show and keeping up became overwhelming. I won't speculate who initiated ending the show but I don't think it was a big surprise to either side and the side that didn't initiate was relieved.

Steve Timko

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May 12, 2021, 8:53:47 PM5/12/21

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She has made a boatload of money off of the show. With the sharp drop in viewers, she's probably looking at making much less money. Why stick around?

Plus, there's examples of people like Johnny Carson and probably Letterman hanging around too long.

Judge Judy is the 800-pound gorilla of afternoon shows. Ellen was No. 2 and there was no No. 3. Interesting to see if someone can step forward/

Wendy Liebman is pitching herself as a talk show host.

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