The Ellen DeGeneres Show dumped in Australia by Channel 9
Ellen DeGeneres’ Australian future is up in the air following recent accusations of bullying and a “toxic work environment” behind the scenes of the American’s celebrity talk show.
Confidential
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Ellen DeGeneres’ Australian future is up in the air following recent accusations of bullying and a “toxic work environment” behind the scenes of the American’s celebrity talk show.
Local broadcaster Channel 9 has stopped airing repeats of The Ellen DeGeneres Show as of today, replacing it with old episodes of US drama Desperate Housewives.
“Discussions are ongoing concerning new episodes of Ellen,” a representative for Nine told The Daily Telegraph. “We are currently resting Ellen repeats on Nine and have replaced with Desperate Housewives, but should our viewers want their daily Ellen fix, repeats will screen weekdays on 9Gem.”
DeGeneres’s talk show has aired on Nine for the past seven years. It is currently being investigated by parent company WarnerMedia over recent allegations from multiple staff members of bullying, racism, micro-aggressions and sexual harassment behind the scenes.
Nine has not aired new episodes of The Ellen DeGeneres show since April as the talk show host has been recording best-of segments instead of new content.
Programmers here opted instead to show repeat episodes from before the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe.
DeGeneres’s chat show is increasingly on shaky ground in the wake of the avalanche of claims against the TV host by former employees.
Reports of bullying and intimidation are now rife with former DJ Tony Okungbowa one of several staff to slam DeGeneres, saying the atmosphere during his years on the show had an air of “toxicity”.
At least one current and 10 former staff have accused the shows three executive producers — Ed Glavin, Mary Connelly and Andy Lassner — of ‘bullying’.
Earlier this month, 62-year-old DeGeneres, who is married to Australian Portia de Rossi, attempted to control the narrative by issuing an video conference apology to staff.
“I’m a multi-layered person, and I try to be the best person I can be and I try to learn from my mistakes,” she said in the video. “I’m hearing that some people felt that I wasn’t kind or too short with them, or too impatient. I apologise to anybody if I’ve hurt your feelings in any way.”