So much for going out on a high note.
Or an apologetic note.
Or any kind of note that isn’t bitter, resentful and really obnoxious.
Ellen DeGeneres just sat down for an interview with The Today Show and pissed away any good will she had built up over the past several weeks.
The comedian announced on Wednesday that she’d be ending her daytime series after its 19th season, which premieres in September and will likely wrap up in May 2022.
“When you’re a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged," Ellen explained to The Hollywood Reporter in breaking this news, adding:
"And as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it’s just not a challenge anymore."
Plenty observers, however, found this line of reasoning to be a heaping pile of you-know-what.
Ellen has seen ratings for her talk show plummet over the course of its current season, undoubtedly due to the terrible press she’s been receiving.
Beginning about a year ago, a handful of former employees came out and went on record with toxic workplace allegations, saying they werre victims of racism, bullying and sexism while working under DeGeneres.
The accusations would have been damning for anyone.
But they especially spelled trouble for a celebrity who has been selling herself as unusually kind and giving.
The Queen of Nice, many people previously labeled Ellen.
In a statement last summer, DeGeneres at least acknowledged the problems on set, firiing three producers and taking some responsibility.
"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 said in August.
“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."
Fast forward to the aforementioned Today Show feature, though, and Ellen basically walked back that apologetic statement.
"I have to say, if nobody else is saying it, it was really interesting because I’m a woman and it did feel very misogynistic," the 63-year-old told Savannah Guthrie.
Did she feel like she was being canceled, Guthrie asked?
"I thought something was going on with that, because it was too orchestrated, it was too coordinated," DeGeneres replied.
"And, you know, people get picked on.
"But for four months straight for me.
"And then for me to read in the press about a toxic work environment, when all I’ve ever heard from every guest that comes on the show is what a happy atmosphere this is, and how, what a happy place it is."
As for whether she was leaving due to the controversy, DeGeneres told Guthrie:
"If that was why I was quitting, I would’ve not come back this year. I really did think about not coming back because it was devastating."
In her first episode back after the allegations arose last spring, DeGeneres told viewers it was "tricky" to be known as the "be-kind lady" and that she was many things all rolled into one.
Just like everyone else.
But now?
"I am a kind person," she said on Today. "I am a person who likes to make people happy."
She’s also a person who, Ellen now swears, didn’t really make any mistakes in the past.
"I’m extremely sensitive to the point of it’s not healthy how sensitive I am.
"When something is coming back at me that I know is not true – I guess I could take one or two of those shots, but four months in a row took a toll on me."
She also pleaded ignorance with Guthrie.
"I don’t know how I could have known when there are 255 employees here, and there are a lot of different buildings here, unless I literally stayed here until the last person goes home at night," she said.
"It is my name on the show so clearly it affects me and I have to be the one to stand up and say, ‘This can’t be tolerated.’
"I do wish somebody had come to me and said, ‘Hey, something’s going on that you should know about.’"
Addressing her studio audience during her monologue on Thursday’s show, DeGeneres told them about her decision.
"I truly have felt like next season was the right time to end this amazing chapter," she said on stage.
Ellen then got choked up and thanked all of her supporters over the years.
"I’m most proud of going 19 years on this show. This is an accomplishment," she told Guthrie.
"I’m proud of the kind of show we do. I’m proud that we are funny.
"I’m proud that we are helpful to people and that we represent these acts of kindness and highlighting people that we want to say look at these people doing good."