Being able to remain one of the greatest television successes for almost twenty years, in what is the most competitive and ruthless panorama in the world, namely the American one where the law carved in stone is that “you are the last thing you did” ( translated: you can also have starred ne The Godfather, but if your latest film is rubbish, you are rubbish), it’s something for the few. One of the very few conductors to have ridden the often anomalous waves of TV made in the USA was Ellen DeGeneresthat with his The Ellen DeGeneres Showdaytime talk born on September 8, 2003 first for NBC and then passed on to Warner Bros, during its 19 editions it managed to be nominated 171 times at the Daytime Emmy Awards, winning 61 times, exceeding the The Oprah Winfrey Show. On May 26, 2022, however, the program will close, probably forever, and it will do so by closing the circle together with its first ever guest, namely Jennifer Aniston, who, spoiler alert, greeted the landlady with a kiss on the lips of which already nostalgic images circulate, to remind us that we live in times in which we ignore the no sense of starting to miss something that is not finished yet. In short, Ellen ends where she began by telling us that, despite the storms of recent years, she has not only built an empire, but also maintained sincere relationships of affection and esteem. It was probably important for the producer, writer, host and comedian to show audiences that she didn’t end up in the badass club, and that her friends remained that way. Jennifer Aniston’s choice represents above all this, the “friends will be friends” that viewers like so much, which makes us believe in “they are like us”, fantasic billionaires yes, but tied to our own values, and nothing works better today than friendship, sisterhood. And moreover, it’s all true: Aniston and DeGeneres have in fact been friends for over thirty years, and have never hidden the great affection that binds them.
And she stood by DeGeneres when things got bleak. When, that is, in the summer of 2020 she was accused of perpetuating or failing to supervise abuse of all kinds, within her program of hers. The charges brought against her concerned racism, intimidation, crueltyand claimed that the presenter had created “a toxic environment to work in”. An example, one of many (there are, in fact, dozens of employees who have decided to speak, ed), tells us about one or one of the show’s workers, who after taking a leave of absence to be able to hospitalize himself in a psychiatric facility because he had attempted suicide, was fired on his return upon his return. Ellene replied almost immediately through a letter published by Hollywood Rpeorter where she wrote that from the first day of the show “I have said that the ”Ellen DeGeneres Show’ it would have been a place of happiness, where no one would ever raise their voice and everyone would be treated with respect. Obviously something has changed. And for that, I’m sorry. Anyone who knows me knows that what happened is exactly the opposite of what I believe and hoped for our show”. And again: “I could not have had the success I have had without all my collaborators. My name is on the show and everything we do is my responsibility. Together with Warner Bros, we immediately launched an internal investigation and are taking action together. As we have grown exponentially, I have not been able to keep up with everything and have relied on others to do theirs the way I want them to. Clearly some have not kept to the covenants. Now that will change and I’m committed to ensuring that this doesn’t happen again”. Many believe that behind the closure of the show more than the official reason for the “end of the creative vein”, there are precisely those accusations, which put a strain on all the ethical scaffolding and the very guiding spirit of the program, which had become the mirror of a liberal, progressive, anti-racist and “kind” America: the slogan “be kind” had become the trademark of the program and also a subscription service. The Ellen Show, however, remains a cult of American TV, such a success as to be able to exceed three thousand episodes, with interviews with around 2,400 celebrities from any sector. DeGeneres has become a symbol of liberal America, also for having declared herself a lesbian in the 90s, becoming the first openly homosexual actress to play an openly homosexual character on TV, in the sitcom Ellen. Just 5 years ago, Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of FreedomAmerica’s highest civilian award and a few years later Time gave her a cover.
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Taking leave of the show, the host said: “Today we recorded the final episode of The Ellen Show which will air on May 26. When we started this show in 2003 the iPhone didn’t exist. Social media didn’t exist. Gay marriage was not legal. We have seen the world change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. But whatever was going on, my goal was always for the show to be a place where we could all come together and laugh for an hour. Being invited into your lives has been the greatest privilege of my life and has brought me incredible joy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you”.
After the last episode, now taped and ready to air (it is said that it is better to bring plenty of tissues), DeGeneres recently spoke to the Associated Press about why his Daytime Emmy-winning show has worked so well and reflected on its influence in the world of TV and media. When asked: Did you want to make the daytime talk show something it hadn’t been before? Degeneres replied: “We had a great combination of factors, like few other shows, we had interesting people and we had interesting conversations. Some people were celebrities and some were spiritual guides. We helped people in need and those who were doing things extraordinary. We introduced the music. Our show a combination of everything, it would have worked at night, but I’m happy that it was successful during the day, proving that viewers are much more complex beings than people realize.”
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Finally, the Associated Press asked how important it was for Degeneres to be “a gay woman American viewers could relate to.” She responded that it’s only “when I see that there’s so much hate or discrimination out there, that I realize how important it is that I’m on television every single day, in no other role than myself. I really am grateful that I became a talk show host, that I could be myself every single day, so much more than I could have done if I had continued acting, playing different roles all the time. grow as a person. Just by being there, on TV, watched by millions of people, I hope I’ve conveyed the message that I’m no different than anyone else.” In sins and virtues.
Today ends The Ellen DeGeneres Show, guest the one with whom it all began: Jennifer Aniston