Ellen DeGeneres Considers Ending Her Talk Show

“The talk show is me, but I’m also playing a character of a talk-show host,” DeGeneres told The New York Times. “There’s a tiny, tiny bit of difference.”
Ellen DeGeneres.
By Andrew Chin/Getty Images.

Ellen DeGeneres might be breaking a lot of hearts in 2020. As the comedian told The New York Times in a recent interview, she’s been weighing the idea of ending her daytime TV show—a move her wife, Portia de Rossi, encourages, and her brother, comedian Vance DeGeneres, has repeatedly talked her out of.

DeGeneres’s new stand-up special, Relatable, debuts on Netflix on December 18. It’s her first in 15 years. When asked why she’s returning to stand-up now, DeGeneres told the paper, “I wanted to show all of me. The talk show is me, but I’m also playing a character of a talk-show host. There’s a tiny, tiny bit of difference.” Added de Rossi, “She’s just a bit more complicated than she appears on the show. There’s more range of emotion.“

Though it may be somewhat limiting, DeGeneres’s perpetual cheer has turned her into a daytime legend. Even though she stopped dancing on her show a couple years ago, her audience remains electric and prone to the habit—and they still express surprise when they meet DeGeneres during her day-to-day life, only to discover she does not dance in her free time. “There’s been times someone wants a picture, and while I’m doing a selfie, they’re like: ‘You’re not dancing!’” DeGeneres said. “Of course I’m not dancing. I’m walking down the street.”

To be clear, DeGeneres is grateful for everything she has achieved—even if some audience members do have a flattened understanding of her as a person. The comedian also recently extended her contract through the summer of 2020, so for now, fans can rest easy—but as the Times notes, she almost declined the option, and remains ambivalent about staying on the air for longer. Her brother’s argument? In a time with so much darkness—yes, including Donald Trump—we need a positive, unifying personality like DeGeneres on the air.

DeGeneres, however, remains torn. In the article, she teases de Rossi, telling the Times, “She gets mad when my brother tells me I can’t stop.” But de Rossi sees it another way: “I just think she’s such a brilliant actress and stand-up that it doesn’t have to be this talk show for her creativity. There are other things she could tackle.” To de Rossi, the end of Ellen would not be synonymous with the end of her wife’s career; it would simply open up her time to pursue other ventures. For her part, DeGeneres said she’d love to do another movie, this time playing an “unappealing” character. That would be a major gear shift—but after so many years of playing nice, anyone would have a bit of negativity bottled up.

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