Ellen DeGeneres reportedly faced her staffers in a virtual meeting. HollywoodLife also learned what has been ‘devastating’ for Ellen amid her talk show’s investigation.
Ellen DeGeneres, 62, is “interested in righting a wrong,” a source close to the talk show host EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife. And she has seemed to prove this, because the longtime television personality has reportedly made a second apology to the staff members of The Ellen DeGeneres Show — this time, over a video meeting on Monday, Aug. 17. “She was emotional but emphatic about creating a culture where people feel good, noting that employees need to feel happy in order to make a show that makes people happy,” sources told our sister publication, Deadline.
Ellen DeGeneres has been hosting her daytime talk show since 2001. (Courtesy of EllenTube)
The report surfaced on the very same day major news broke, ushering in a new era for Ellen’s show: executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman have been axed, including co-executive producer Jonathan Norman, Deadline confirmed. The show’s house DJ ,“tWitch” Boss, will take over Jonathan’s former title, a source told the outlet. Executive producers Mary Connelly, Andy Lassner and Derek Westervelt will also lead the show from here on out, the report added.
These reported developments all come after it was reported that Warner Bros. launched an internal investigation into allegations of a toxic work environment on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in July of 2020. “DeGeneres vowed to interact more with her staffers, revealing that she was shocked to find out that people on the show had been told to avoid eye contact with her. She encouraged staffers to talk to her,” the Deadline author, Nellie Andreeva, also claimed. The author added that sources told her publication that Ellen “again apologized to her staff” and that “she was personal, opening up about being introverted and having good days and bad days, which causes her to sometimes keep to herself in her own space, something she acknowledged could be misconstrued as her not being nice.”
Ellen reportedly said at one point, “Does that mean I’m perfect? No. I’m not. I’m a multi-layered person, and I try to be the best person I can be and try to learn from my mistakes.” As for the future of the show, “HR changes to improve the environment on the show, including reporting of any issues” were reportedly announced on Monday, sources told Deadline. As for the investigation, sources said this: “WarnerMedia’s investigation, which included more than 100 interviews, did not find evidence that the show fostered a racist work environment but did uncover occasional incidents of racial insensitivity, something the Ellen executive producers, speaking on the video call, vowed to correct.” HollywoodLife has reached out to Ellen’s rep, who had no comment for this report, which arrived after Ellen made her first apology to staffers via an internal memo that was released on July 31.
