Ellen DeGeneres Ending Talk Show After Nearly 20 Years

In an announcement that came as a shock to some, Ellen DeGeneres announced that she will end her talk show after 19 seasons in 2022. She told the Hollywood Reporter, “When you’re a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged – and as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it’s just not a challenge anymore. I was going to stop after season 16. That was going to be my last season and they wanted to sign for four more years and I said I’d sign for maybe for one. They were saying there was no way to sign for one. ‘We can’t do that with the affiliates and the stations need more of a commitment.’ So, we [settled] on three more years and I knew that would be my last. That’s been the plan all along. And everybody kept saying, even when I signed, ‘You know, that’s going to be 19, don’t you want to just go to 20? It’s a good number.’ So is 19.”

When asked if the decision to end her show had anything to do with the allegations of a toxic work environment that have surfaced over the last year, she said that if that had been the reason, she wouldn’t have returned for the current season.

Read more on her decision here.