After a rocky season, following a toxic workplace environment controversy and amid declining ratings, Ellen DeGeneres is ending her daytime talk show, Deadline reported.
DeGeneres' current contract takes The Ellen DeGeneres Show through the upcoming 2021-22 season, the show's 19th, and it will now be the program's final chapter.
The announcement of its end was messy, with the news leaking to the tabloid The Daily Mail, which broke it early on May 12, thwarting DeGeneres' and the show's producer Warner Bros.' plans of announcing the news on their own terms.
"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," DeGeneres told The Hollywood Reporter, discussing the move publicly for the first time.
In a 2018 New York Times profile, she revealed that her actress wife, Portia de Rossi, had been encouraging her to move on from the 180-shows-a-year gig, while her comedian brother, along with executives at Warner Bros., had urged her to continue.