Ellen Degeneres denies toxic workplace claims led to her ending talk show, cites climate of hatred under Trump



Ellen Degeneres denied that the allegations of a toxic workplace environment led to her ending her talk show and instead blamed the climate of hatred under former President Donald Trump.

Degeneres made the comments during an interview Thursday with host Savannah Guthrie on NBC's "Today."

Guthrie asked if she had trouble making the decision to end her show and Degeneres said she had first thought of ending the show in 2018 because of the hatred during the Trump administration.

"First of all I had been struggling with it for a while. I really did think I was gonna stop season 16, because, it was, if you can remember there was a different president, and it was a different time, and there was a lot of hatred and anger, and stuff," Degeneres said.

"And then my brother was like, 'You bring so much joy to people. If you stop, then all that darkness wins. You're the light, like, stay and help people be kinder and be more compassionate,'" she continued.

Degeneres completely denied that the accusations of a toxic workplace led to her ending the show and said that instead the attacks encouraged her to stay longer than she wanted to stay.

She also said that the campaign against her and her show appeared to be "orchestrated," and cited comments from her celebrity guests as evidence that the allegations were not true.

"You know, for me to read in the press about a toxic work environment — when all I've ever heard from every guest that comes on the show is what a happy atmosphere this is and what a happy place it is," Degeneres said.

She went on to say that she was a victim of clickbait headline writers who thought it was too perfect to cast her as a villain after she took on the motto, "be kind."

Guthrie asked her what she would have made her motto if she could go back and change it.

"Go f*** yourselves," Degeneres responded, halfway joking.

Here's the entire interview with Degeneres and Guthrie:

Ellen Degeneres Explains Why She's Ending Her Showwww.youtube.com

Former ‘Ellen’ producer goes after DeGeneres following cancellation: ‘I'd like to see her work on a farm where she can relate with all of the animals’



An award-winning former producer for "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" has opened up about what she said is a toxic atmosphere on the set of the show.

DeGeneres announced this week that the show would be ending after 19 seasons on daytime television.

What are the details?

Two-time Emmy Award-winning producer Hedda Muskat told Australian show "Sunrise" host Natalie Barr that she believes DeGeneres "duped" her fans and viewers into believing that she is a "nice person."

"The viewers have spoken," Muskat said of the show's cancellation. "Her ratings have been in the toilet for a long, long time now, her show has not been fun, it has not been interesting, and she's not, really, by the way, stepping down. The viewers fired her."

She also said that the famed show host and longtime actress and comedienne isn't as genteel as she would have everyone believe.

"I don't think the show's demise is because of the viewers' loyalty to the employees, because let's face it; as employees we endure hardship from the workplace all the time," Muskat reasoned. "I think the the viewers are disappointed in the phoniness she's been projecting as this 'nice person.' So I feel that the viewers feel duped, in a way, that she's not this nice person. The viewers are not going to put up with the backstage racism that goes on and the backstage bullying that goes on. So I think the viewers have woken up, finally."

Muskat said that she was first hired in 2003 and was responsible for booking human interest guests on the show.

"When I would go in to pitch Ellen who we have on the show today for our production meetings, she looked away. She showed no interest with any of the news-breaking stories," she recalled. "She really showed a lot of despise for a lot of my people that we were pitching to her, which is fine. It's a pitch. I don't care about that."

"But," the former producer continued, "But we had to walk on eggshells with her because when we would be pitching, her snide remarks would be, 'What am I going to talk to them about? I don't know. I have nothing to say. I don't know.' So we would write the whole outline for her and then the guests would walk off feeling like crap. So it wasn't goodwill for the show."

Celebrities, however, were a different breed, Muskat said.

"She loved kissing ass with all of celebrities and she really was not in a position to interview the real people because she couldn't really carry a conversation with them," she said.

When asked where she would like to see DeGeneres turn up after her show's dust settles, Muskat said, "I'd like to see her work on a farm where she can relate with all of the animals, and the pets, and the dogs, and the cows, and the pigs, because she can relate to animals far more than she does with people."

Muskat said that her own personal experience was shared by at least "over a hundred employees" that worked on the production over nearly two decades.

"I was not able to have any connection with her, make any eye contact, and here's the thing: It's not just me, or three of us; there were over a hundred employees over the 19 years that walk away with with a sickened feeling about working there," she admitted. "As much as I loved my job as a booker and producer, I was almost relieved when I got fired. I wanted to take a shower; it was like a whole new dawn."

ELLEN CANCELLED | Former producer SLAMS Ellen in scathing LIVE interview | Sunrise www.youtube.com