Embattled star Ellen DeGeneres has revealed she is bringing back her troubled talk show, amid the toxic workplace scandal it is currently under investigation for, which she will address when it airs later this month.
‘I can’t wait to get back to work and back to our studio. And, yes, we’re gonna talk about it,’ said DeGeneres in a press statement on Tuesday, referring to the current investigation going on.
Despite the controversy, The Ellen DeGeneres Show returns for Season 18 on Monday, September 21st, and will resume filming from the ELLEN stage on the Warner Bros. lot without an in-studio audience.
She’s back: Ellen DeGeneres has revealed her ‘toxic’ talk-show will return this month despite ongoing investigation into workplace scandal… and her first guest will be Tiffany Haddish
DeGeneres, 62, has even secured her guests for the new series that will include Tiffany Haddish, Kerry Washington, Alec Baldwin, Chrissy Teigen, Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Adam Sandler, and Orlando Bloom.
It was also revealed in the statement that Stephen “tWitch” Boss will a guest host upcoming episodes, though it is unclear if this means he will be taking the place of DeGeneres in selective episodes.
Last month, executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman were all fired from the popular talk show following accusations leveled against them by current and former staffers.
Facing the music: Ellen, 62, has said she will address the toxic workplace scandal on her show
DeGeneres is said to have broken the news to employees in a videoconference call, where she described the recent allegations as ‘heartbreaking’ according to reports at the time.
An ’emotional’ and ‘apologetic’ DeGeneres announced the decision in a call with more than 200 workers, sources told Variety.
They said the host – who has herself been accused of of fostering a ‘toxic environment’ – admitted on the call she was ‘not perfect’ and that the show’s leaders had not been sensitive to ‘human beings’ as they instead focused on running the show as a ‘well-oiled machine.’
2020 has been rough: Ellen had been doing her show from the comfort of her million dollar home before the workplace scandal broke out
DeGeneres also admitted the show had alienated employees and guests by shifting shooting timetables at short notice and pledged that going forwards the show will stick to agreed-upon timetables.
DeGeneres, as well as long-running executive producers Mary Connelly, Andy Lassner and Derek Westervelt, will continue in their positions on the show.
An attorney for Leman said his client was ‘devastated’ about being ‘scapegoated’ and described his ousting from the show as ‘shocking’.
The firings of three of the top producers come as the series is in the midst of an internal investigation into allegations of on-set sexual misconduct, as well as workplace bullying.
The investigation was first sparked by a Buzzfeed expose from July 16, which revealed claims made by one current and 10 former employees of Ellen’s talk show saying they experienced racism, fear and intimidation while working on the long-running series and accusing producers Lassner, Connelly and Glavin of bullying.
The show then faced additional accusations about sexual misconduct in a second BuzzFeed News article on July 30, in which dozens of men and women accused Leman, Glavin and Norman of sexual harassment, misconduct or assault.
However, the news also follows a new revelation from DailyMail.com that Degeneres ran her household like a military-style boot camp, according to a former staffer.
Ready to return: Ellen is making her way back on the comeback trail, even as she faces more claims of bad behavior
Nitpicking DeGeneres would even ‘lay traps’ before she left for work, strategically leaning matchsticks behind cupboard doors and cushions to test if cleaners were dusting every square inch of her sprawling residence.
Employees rarely lasted more than a few months and on one occasion, a household manager was fired just two hours into the job, according to the source.
And repairmen, security guards and other contractors were reluctant to come over to the house because DeGeneres would slate their work – despite her famous ‘be kind to one another’ catchphrase – it’s alleged.