Ellen DeGeneres loses 1 million viewers after apologies for toxic workplace

Ellen DeGeneres has publicly mused on the possibility of leaving the show in recent years. PHOTO: NYTIMES

LOS ANGELES (NEW YORK TIMES) - When Ellen DeGeneres returned from a summer hiatus to open the 18th season of her daytime talk show last September, she came armed with an apology.

"I learnt that things happen here that never should have happened," she said. "I take that very seriously. And I want to say I am so sorry to the people who were affected."

Those remarks came in the wake of reports of workplace misconduct at The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Viewers tuned in for the apology: The season opener had the highest ratings for an Ellen premiere in four years. And then they tuned out.

The show has lost more than 1 million viewers since last September, according to the research firm Nielsen, averaging 1.5 million viewers over the past six months, down from 2.6 million in the same period last year.

The decline has come at a time when workplace behaviour, in Hollywood and elsewhere, has come under intense scrutiny against a backdrop of protest and social change.

It is a startling setback for one of daytime television's most successful franchises and for DeGeneres, who was at the forefront of an earlier cultural shift when, as the star of a prime-time network sitcom in the 1990s, she announced that she is gay.

The show's loss of more than 1 million viewers translates to a 43 per cent decline, representing a steeper drop than any of its competitors, such as Dr. Phil (2.5 million) and Live: With Kelly and Ryan (2.7 million).

DeGeneres, 63, has publicly mused on the possibility of leaving the show in recent years and the spotlight on her workplace troubles has added to the questions about her future.

Public perception of DeGeneres started to change in July last year, when BuzzFeed reported that several of the show's former and current staff members said they had confronted "racism, fear and intimidation" on the set.

Several staff members also said producers had sexually harassed them. Warner Bros investigated the workplace and three high-level producers were fired.

Some observers believe the accusations may have weakened DeGeneres' relationship with her audience. The host built her show as an oasis from the outside world, a place of goofy dancing, light jokes, cash giveaways to surprised audience members and high-wattage celebrity guests.

Several years ago, she adopted "Be Kind" as her motto, in response to the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a gay college student who took his own life after being bullied.

"Her brand is not just being fairly nice - it is 'Be Kind,'" said Mr Stephen Galloway, the dean of Chapman University's Dodge College of film and media arts. "She's chosen two words to stamp herself. You cannot have hypocrisy better defined than when you've chosen those two words to define yourself and everyone is seeing the opposite is true inside your show.

As DeGeneres fights through a loss in popularity, she has turned to celebrity friends to help her make the case that there is not much difference between the on-camera Ellen and the real Ellen.

When First Lady Michelle Obama was a virtual guest last week, she spoke warmly about the time she went to DeGeneres' house and they played a piano duet together. A video clip of the pair at the piano was shown.

Another recent guest, Jennifer Garner, also appearing remotely, raced to her hotel room balcony at the host's request to tell passersby how much she adored DeGeneres.

"I love her," the actress shouted. "She's kind. She's a humanitarian. She loves animals."

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