Ellen DeGeneres is commonly known as the queen of daytime TV. Her lighthearted and cute personality helped her talk show, named after her, take off from the moment she started it back in 2003. Throughout her career, DeGeneres has put on an extremely kind persona, donating to many organizations and frequently giving studio audience members gifts for attending her talk show. However, in the past months, the TV star has been under fire for very controversial reasons.

In March 2020, Twitter user Kevin Porter asked his followers to answer with the most bizarre story they have heard about DeGeneres being a ¨Karen.¨ There were thousands of replies, and just months later, Buzzfeed published an article including ten of DeGeneres’ former employees who described the ¨toxicity¨ of the work environment at The Ellen Show. The former employees explained how staff members were fired for taking days off during emergencies and how they were never allowed to speak to DeGeneres. 

Further outrage sparked in April after COVID-19 took hold of the United States, and employees felt distressed at work because of the vague information about their job situation. The obscurity allegedly included no information on their work hours, pay, or questions on their mental and physical health during such an unprecedented time.

As if it were not enough, more serious allegations surfaced as staff members brought to light their alleged subjection to sexual harassment and disorderly conduct by the show’s executive producers. DeGeneres issued a statement explaining that her producers were at fault for the show’s problematic atmosphere. However, Everybody Loves Raymond actor Brad Garrett, tweeted that the talk show host should take accountability for the sexual misconduct and that he was aware of the number of people who had been mistreated by the media mogul.

DeGeneres held a meeting over a Zoom call on August 17th with 200 current and former employees. During this call, she expressed her concern and plans to interact with staff more and create a healthier workplace.

After all these allegations became public, rumors surfaced that DeGeneres would be resigning from her show. People have speculated that stars such as James Corden and Tiffany Haddish could replace her. Though there is no concrete evidence of this claim, gossip about possible replacements remains on fans’ minds. Due to the uncertainty, we will just have to wait and see what will come in the future with The Ellen Show.