Ellen DeGeneres Has Misplaced Over 1 Million Viewers Since Apology For Poisonous Office

Speak present host Ellen DeGeneres has hemorrhaged viewers since her program was rocked by explosive allegations of office misconduct final 12 months, The New York Occasions reported Monday.

DeGeneres apologized on air final September on the opener of her 18th season. Viewers watched that episode, then tuned out, the Occasions reported, citing Nielsen information. Since that point, “The Ellen DeGeneres Present” has misplaced over 1 million viewers, right down to a median of 1.5 million within the final six months in comparison with 2.6 million in the identical interval final 12 months.

That’s a decline of 43%, dropping her from the league of daytime speak juggernauts like “Dr. Phil” and “Reside: With Kelly and Ryan,” which each common greater than 2.5 million views. “Ellen” rankings now sit nearer to these of exhibits hosted by Kelly Clarkson, Maury Povich and Jerry Springer’s former safety guard Steve Wilkos, the Occasions famous.

David McGuire, an govt vp of programming at Telepictures, a subsidiary of the present’s producer, Warner Bros., pushed again on the Occasions’ findings.

“‘The Ellen DeGeneres Present’ stays one of many high three highest-rated syndicated speak exhibits this season,” he mentioned in an announcement.

“Whereas broadcast is down throughout the board and Covid has been difficult for manufacturing, we’re wanting ahead to bringing again our stay audiences and a nineteenth season crammed with the entire hilarious and heartwarming moments which have made ‘Ellen’ one of many longest operating and most profitable speak exhibits in historical past.”

“Ellen,” centered round DeGeneres’ “be variety” branding, suffered an enormous blow to its repute over the accusations, first reported by BuzzFeed final July. A number of present and former employees members of the present mentioned they confronted racism, intimidation and a poisonous work setting on set, and a number of other additionally alleged they had been sexually harassed by producers.

Warner Bros. carried out an investigation, and three high producers ― Ed Glavin, Kevin Leman and Jonathan Norman ― had been fired by August.