'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' Reveals Last Episode's Date; Ellen DeGeneres to Give Over $2M in Bonuses to Staff
"The Ellen DeGeneres Show is coming to an end after "19 iconic seasons" in nearly two decades.
Ellen DeGeneres will pay out more than $2 million in bonuses to her staff as she prepares for the final episodes of her award-winning talk show, which hosted over 4,000 guests and distributed giveaways worth nearly half a billion dollars.
The final episodes of the daytime show will feature a slate of returning guests, including former First Lady Michelle Obama, Serena Williams, Zac Efron, Adam Levine, Behati Prinsloo, Kim Kardashian, DeGeneres' wife Portia de Rossi, and a lot more. The final episode will air on May 26, according to People.
Ellen DeGeneres to Give More Than $2 Million in Bonuses to Staff
Ellen DeGeneres announced in May 2021 that her long-running talk show would end in 2022. The star told The Hollywood Reporter at the time that the decision to wrap up the series was due to her needing "something new to challenge" her.
It is still unclear how the funds are being distributed, but sources told Deadline that staffers who have worked on the show for one to four years would receive two weeks of salary, while those who have worked for four to eight years will get three weeks of salary, and so on - with the longest-serving personnel receiving six weeks of pay.
After the final episode, the show will continue airing on affiliate stations with guest hosts, compilation shows, and reruns throughout the summer.
In addition to the more than $2 million in bonuses, DeGeneres notified her employees that their healthcare coverage had been extended for six months, Daily Mail reported.
They will also be given access to resume building and networking workshops and free one-year memberships to LinkedIn Learning, Deadline reported.
The generous gestures came after a series of controversies, including claims that working on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" is not as wholesome as it appears.
'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' Draws Controversy Over Toxic Workplace Allegations
Several former and current staffers of the daytime talk show have accused Ellen DeGeneres of fostering a toxic work environment last year and turning a blind eye to "bullying" by executives.
These claims were revealed in July 2020 by one current and 10 former employees of the show. They said they experienced racism, fear, and intimidation while working with DeGeneres. Most of the former employees noted that it was the executive producers and other senior managers' fault for the workplace toxicity.
Executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman were all fired following the accusations.
On the other hand, DeGeneres has issued an apology and sent her staff a memo in which she wrote she was taking steps to correct the issues with her employees.
In a statement she released to address the issue, Ellen DeGeneres said she was committed to making sure that this would not happen again.
Following the series finale, "The Kelly Clarkson Show" of Kelly Clarkson will fill DeGeneres' series' time slot.
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Written by: Jess Smith
WATCH: Ellen DeGeneres Explains Why She's Ending Her Show - From TODAY