The Ellen DeGeneres Show, commonly shortened to Ellen, is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The show ran for nineteen seasons from September 8, 2003, to May 26, 2022, with 3,339 episodes broadcast in total. It was produced by Telepictures Productions. The majority of stations owned by NBC Owned Television Stations, along with Hearst Television and Tegna, served as the program's largest affiliate base. For its first five seasons, the show was taped in Studio 11 at NBC Studios in Burbank, California. From season 6 onwards, the show moved to being taped at Stage 1 on the nearby Warner Bros. lot. Since the beginning of the sixth season, The Ellen DeGeneres Show was broadcast in high definition.
The show received 171 Daytime Emmy Award nominations and won 63 Daytime Emmy Awards as of 2022, including four for Outstanding Talk Show and seven for Outstanding Talk Show Entertainment, making 11 total awards and surpassing the record held by The Oprah Winfrey Show, which won nine as Outstanding Talk Show before it was divided into two categories (Informative and Entertainment) in 2008. The show also won 17 People's Choice Awards. On May 21, 2019, DeGeneres announced she had signed for three more years, renewing the show through 2022. The eighteenth season premiered on September 21, 2020. On May 12, 2021, DeGeneres announced that the nineteenth season would be her last, which premiered on September 13, 2021.
The final episode aired on May 26, 2022, as previously announced on March 17. New episodes with guest hosts, archival clip shows hosted by DeGeneres and others, and repeats aired on stations across the United States until September 9, after which most stations (including NBC O&Os) began occupying the show's time slot with new newscasts or syndication programs such as The Kelly Clarkson Show. The show ended due to a combination of declining ratings following allegations of a toxic workplace environment and DeGeneres's own desire to move on creatively.
Concept The program combines comedy, celebrity, musical guests, and human-interest stories. The program often features audience participation games where prizes are awarded. During her Twelve Days of Giveaways promotion, audience members receive roughly $3,000 worth of prizes on each of the twelve episodes. Because the show has become so popular, not all who arrive hoping to see a taping can fit into the studio, so an offshoot space was created. People seated here are often referenced and shown briefly on camera but watch the taping from off-stage. Other non-celebrities have been featured in an attempt by DeGeneres to give them 15 minutes of fame. Guests in this role have included intelligent children and small business owners. In the show's third season, DeGeneres began surprising fans by introducing them to their favorite celebrities.
Recurring elements
Several recurring sounds, gags, and catchphrases are used by DeGeneres depending on the topic of discussion or theme for a specific episode. For example, after DeGeneres says the phrase, "Aww Snap!", the sound effect of a whip cracking often is played. In her monologue, DeGeneres frequently thanks the audience's applause by saying "I feel the same way about you!" Other video segments include DeGeneres scaring people, playing pranks, taking part in faux-breaking news segments and interacting with crew members. Other recurring segments include those where DeGeneres comments on Internet videos, tabloid-style photographs of celebrities, advertisements on Craigslist, or voicemails left for her on an answering machine. Some segments feature audience members more prominently, including having audience members show hidden talents, pictures of others that resemble DeGeneres, and interviewing children.
DeGeneres frequently plays games with audience members and awards prizes based on their performance. Games have included Pictionary-style drawing games, finding hidden objects within the studio, category, current event or pop-culture-based trivia, and various other stunt and charade-based games. DeGeneres also joked several times on the show about when a sequel to Finding Nemo, in which she famously had a lead role, would eventually release, as well as make references to the film. Eventually, the sequel, Finding Dory, was officially announced by DeGeneres.
Segments (including former and recurring) The show has many recurring segments throughout the years. Some include: Oh Hair No! is a segment that involves fans sending DeGeneres pictures of their funny haircuts, some of which appear on the show. Know or Go is a segment involving three audience members (as contestants) who answer questions based on different topics such as Thanksgiving and current events. Upon an incorrect answer, the contestant gets dropped through a trapdoor. The remaining contestant will have to answer 3 questions correctly in a row in order to win the game. Clumsy Thumbsy is a segment in which DeGeneres shows messed up auto corrects sent in by fans. Oh Puh-lice is a segment in which odd police reports are shown. Ellen's Dance Dare is a segment in which viewers send videos of themselves secretly dancing behind oblivious people. Irish jigs were featured on the 2012 St. Patrick's Day episode. Many celebrities have participated such as Emma Stone, Zac Efron, Lilly Singh, The Janoskians and Taylor Swift. Bad Paid-for Tattoos Odd, usually misspelled body art is displayed. A Little Yelp from My Friends DeGeneres reads reviews from the website Yelp. "What's Wrong with These Photos?" Photos Silly photos sent in by viewers are featured. "What's Wrong with These Videos?" Videos DeGeneres shares funny moments from TV that aren't quite right. Baby, Baby, Baby, Oh! Baby, Baby, Baby, Photo! DeGeneres shares funny baby photos sent in from viewers. Ellen Answers Your Questions About Taxes And When She Can't, She Calls Someone From H&R Block Audience members ask DeGeneres various questions relating to taxes. If DeGeneres doesn't know the answer, she calls various H&R Block offices from around the US. Ellen and tWitch Guess What's Going to Happen Next In This Crazy (Foreign) Commercial tWitch and DeGeneres are shown clips of funny commercials, and must guess what will happen next from a list of possible outcomes. "What Were They Thinking?" Audience Dancing Audience members are shown dancing with voices acting out the dancers' thoughts. "What's Wrong with These Signs?" Signs Viewers send DeGeneres pictures of signs that aren't quite right. Looky Looky at this Booky / Me Read Books DeGeneres shares books with funny covers and titles sent in by viewers. Awesome Album Covers Viewers send DeGeneres records with bad covers. A picture's Worth Five Thousand Dollars DeGeneres shares old photos of herself sent in by viewers, choosing one photo to win five thousand dollars. Oh Come On! DeGeneres shares things that make her say oh come on! Oh, Straight People DeGeneres shows slightly amusing news headlines, punctuating each headline by saying Oh, Straight People. $#*! My Mama Says DeGeneres' mother, Betty DeGeneres, reads out funny lines in a serious manner, occasionally reading out lines sent in by viewers. This segment is a direct response to the CBS sitcom $h*! My Dad Says. What the BLANK is Your Secret Secrets from audience members are shown, with various words blanked out. tWitch and DeGeneres then try to guess what the missing words are, questioning the audience member for clues. If none of them guess it correctly, letters can be revealed. Spill the Tea/ Spill the talents A game where DeGeneres has to match secrets to a panel of five audience members. Ulike similar games, DeGeneres does not question the contestants, simply matching the secrets based on intuition. After all secrets are correctly matched, each contestant tells the story of their secret. A variation featuring hidden talents has also been played. Really Real Real Estate DeGeneres shares funny real estate listings. World Wide Whaat? DeGeneres shows off strange, funny and useless websites. Beach, Please! Viewers send in mildly infuriating moments from their lives, with the person deemed most inconvenienced winning a vacation getaway. Tony Karaoke is a segment that features the show's DJ, Tony, singing often wrong-but-hilarious lyrics to popular songs. Tea Time with Sophia Grace and Rosie is a segment in which Sophia Grace & Rosie interview celebrity guests on the show, all while enjoying cookies and tea. OMKalen features Kalen Allen reacting, often dramatically, to videos. The segment has become recurring on EllenTube. ApPARENTly Confused a spinoff of the segment Clumsy Thumbsy, DeGeneres shows messages written by parents who don't understand texting and technology. In Your FACEbook is a segment in which DeGeneres shares funny Facebook photos taken from the profile pages of audience members. I Thought You Were My Friend DeGeneres shares funny Facebook photos taken from the profile pages of audience member's Facebook friends. "What Have YOU Been Up to on Facebook?" is a recurring segment in which DeGeneres reveals some personal and private information of the public to the audience. INSTA-grammification is a segment in which DeGeneres shares funny and unusual pictures from the show's Instagram page. "Vine After Vine"/ Fresh Off the Vine is a segment in which DeGeneres shares 6-second video clips from the once popular mobile app Vine. Weekly Tweetly Roundup is a segment in which DeGeneres shares funny and interesting tweets. Classic Joke Thursday is a segment in which DeGeneres shares funny jokes/puns, usually in a conversation with the show's DJ. This Plus That is a segment in which a montage of dancing audience members is shown usually combined with humorous sound effects. Just KID-ink is a segment in which DeGeneres shares funny drawings from kids. "Grand Design" an online segment in which DeGeneres, with presenters and home makeover experts the "Kitchen Cousins" John Colaneri and Anthony Carrino would redesign a room in just 24 hours on a budget of $1,000. "Starbucks Prank!" is a recurring segment in which DeGeneres sends popular celebrities out to Starbucks to prank the cashiers. "What the Heck Are These Kids Talking About?" is a former segment in which DeGeneres reviews rap lyrics and tries to figure out what they mean. "Celebrity Pranks!" is a segment in which DeGeneres often pulls a prank or scares celebrity guests, although she once pranked a pair of best friends she brought on the show (one posted a video of scaring the other every day for a year). Although any celebrity can fall victim to it at any time, some have fallen for it often including Taylor Swift, Eric Stonestreet, Sarah Paulson, and Selena Gomez, who have each fallen for it at least five times over multiple appearances. On several occasions, the celebrity is pranked more than once during the same show (Octavia Spencer and Sam Smith as well as the previously mentioned ones). Some pranks include (but are not limited to) scaring guests in the dressing room (usually the bathroom), having a staff member or another celebrity scare them onstage during the interview (using various methods ranging from simple to inventive), or backstage shenanigans where her own staff, particularly Andy Lassner, are frequent victims as well. On occasion the prank fails to scare the intended target, usually prompting a wisecrack from DeGeneres (e.g. Russell Crowe, Colin Farrell, Daniel Radcliffe, and Garth Brooks). DeGeneres herself is an occasional target but has proven to be very difficult to pull a prank on with two celebrities (Steve Carell and Matt Lauer) being the only ones to successfully prank her as of April 2021. "Chat Time With Ellen!" is a talk-show segment in which DeGeneres talks about—or to—people who have made viral videos.