Ellen DeGeneres Hints She’ll Talk About Toxic Workplace Allegations When Show Returns

DeGeneres said she is excited to get back to work and the studio for her talk show’s 18th season and added, “yes, we’re gonna talk about it,” in a press statement emailed to Forbes.

There has been turmoil at The Ellen DeGeneres Show since mid-July when current and former employees told BuzzFeed about incidents of racism, intimidation and sexual harassment on set; DeGeneres was not directly implicated and the show’s executive producers said they owned the “day to day responsibility” of the show. 

Two weeks after the allegations were made public, DeGeneres reportedly apologized to staff and said Warner Bros. parent company WarnerMedia and a third-party firm launched an internal investigation into the working conditions at the show and would interview current and former employees.

Hours after DeGeneres’ apology, dozens of former employees of the show accused multiple executive producers of sexual misconduct, harassment and assault in a second BuzzFeed News report. 

Warner Bros. didn’t comment on the sexual misconduct allegations, citing the current investigation, but said in an earlier statement that the primary findings indicated some “deficiencies related to the show’s day-to-day management” resulting in staffing changes and other “appropriate measures” to address the issues.

After speculation that the show could be canceled or that DeGeneres would be replaced, executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman, both named in the second BuzzFeed report, and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman were ousted in August.