Ellen DeGeneres Pulls Plug On Talk Show After 19 Seasons

Ellen DeGeneres is winding down her award-winning daytime television talk show after 19 seasons and more than 3,000 episodes.

What Happened: In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, DeGeneres stated she informed her staff this week and will publicly address her decision on Thursday's show with Oprah Winfrey, who reigned as the daytime talk show star before DeGeneres' ascension.

"When you’re a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged," she said. "And as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it’s just not a challenge anymore."

The show will conclude in 2022.

What Else Was Happening: The show's popularity has been waning recently. DailyMail reported the show’s ratings between February 2020 and February 2021 had plummeted in several major metro markets: a 32% decline in Philadelphia, a 40% slide in New York City and Chicago, a 50% drop in San Francisco and a 59% tumble in Los Angeles.

The show’s reputation was further damaged last year amid news reports that employees faced a hostile workplace where harassment and racist talk were commonplace. DeGeneres publicly apologized in the opening episode of the show’s 18th season.

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What It Means: When the show debuted in 2003, it reanimated DeGeneres’ career, which had stagnated after she publicly acknowledged she was a lesbian in 1997. After coming out, the ratings on her sitcom “Ellen” plummeted and the show was canceled at the end of its fifth season in 1998. A new sitcom, “The Ellen Show,” debuted in 2001 and was canceled after 13 episodes and low ratings.

The talk show focused primarily on celebrity interviews, audience games, and acts of benevolence to help individuals in need. Last month, DeGeneres brought on Mark Cuban for a discussion of Dogecoin DOGE/USD, who acknowledged buying the cryptocurrency for his son.

During the run of the show, DeGeneres accumulated multiple Daytime Emmy and People's Choice Awards, as well the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2015 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

(Photo by ronpaulrevolt2008 / Flickr Creative Commons)