The Ellen DeGeneres Show has been removed from Australia’s Channel Nine network amid the investigation into the show’s “toxic” work environment.
The chat show host has faced a lot of backlash in recent months, as a number of her current and former staff members have alleged they were subjected to a “toxic work environment” while working on the show.
The controversy sparked an internal investigation by WarnerMedia, which resulted in the firing of her show’s top producers – Ed Glavin, Kevin Leman and Jonathan Norman.
“We are resting Ellen repeats on Nine and have replaced with Desperate Housewives,” a spokesperson for Channel Nine told news.com.au.
Channel Nine’s programming director Hamish Turner told TV Tonight: “Do we have rights beyond this year? The answer to that is no.”
“We’ll wait to hear from Warner Brothers as to the results of their internal inquiry, because at the moment, they haven’t even come forward with what the show is, or when it might go back into production.”
“We’re waiting to see what the U.S. are doing and then obviously we’ll need to negotiate rates.”
“There’s a lot to go under the bridge before we even get to that stage. We haven’t got a clear picture yet,” he added.
WarnerMedia is reportedly nearing the end of its investigation, with Ellen recently apologising to her staff for “hurting their feelings”.
According to PEOPLE, Ellen told employees she “wasn’t perfect” during an emotional video conference last Monday.
“I’m a multi-layered person, and I try to be the best person I can be and I try to learn from my mistakes,” she told them.
“I’m hearing that some people felt that I wasn’t kind or too short with them, or too impatient. I apologize to anybody if I’ve hurt your feelings in any way.”
An insider added: “Ellen was emotional, she was emphatic about making it better and making herself more available.”
“She acknowledged she can be introverted at times and she apologized if that was ever seen as hurtful.”
“They’re putting in real structures and resources for people so this never happens again and that is extremely important to Ellen. She was emotional seeing everybody. They’re family.”
Another source said Ellen told staff that “she’s been dying to see them, that she couldn’t because of the investigation and she really wanted them to hear from her that this is a reset, things are changing and things are going to be better moving forward. And she’s committed to that.”
