Ellen DeGeneres may soon get canceled, according to a stunning new report.
We don't mean this in the broad, social media sense, either.
We don't mean this in the sense that Ellen DeGeneres is being criticized by an online mob and users are saying she should be ostracized from the general conversation and/or the public stage.
We mean this literally.
Rumors surrounding her future have been flying around that we never expected to entertain just a few months ago.
Ellen may actually get canceled as a talk show.
Amid insiders whispering about this possibility, The New York Post spoke to a represenative from DeGeneres’ production company, who simply said the following:
“Telepictures can confirm it’s untrue."
How is this even being discussed at the moment?
How could Ellen, one of the most popular and successful figures in all of entertainment, have fallen this far so quickly?
Back in April, Ellen was accused of cruel behavior toward her guests and also toward her employees in a series of articles.
These reports began to circulate once she began airing a stripped-down version of her talk show amid the coronavirus pandemic.
According to insiders, the 62-year-old talk show icon allegedly communicated very poorly with her staff during this period.
And then ripped them off.
Crew members "received no written communication about the status of their working hours, pay, or inquiries about their mental and physical health from producers for over a month," said two sources.
According to Variety, both insiders spoke out only under the condition of anonymity because the situation was so toxic.
Then, with the country in the grips of a long overdue conversation regarding income inequality, especially in the midst of the global pandemic, the real bombshell hit.
After weeks of uncertainty, "nearly all crew members were told last week to brace for a 60% reduction in pay, even as the show continues to air," the report continued.
For the record, Ellen is worth approximately $330 million.
In the wake of this backlash, ratings for Ellen have plummeted.
Is that because of the negative press? It's hard to imagine it's not, since Americans are at home watching TV more than ever, and Ellen's ratings recently fell 14 percent to a new season 17-low rating of 1.2.
The “stories are all true,” a former employee of Ellen's long-running daytime talk show has told the Post, seemingly confirming allegations of abusive behavior by DeGeneres.
This remains a shocking revelation after many years of DeGeneres presenting herself on air as an especially friendly and benevolent celebrity.
“Is she always nice? No,” added a former staffer. “It irritates me that people think she’s all sweetness and light and she gets away with it."
Not so much any longer, it seems.
The contradiction between such accounts and Ellen's public persona is hard to reconcile, but perhaps that's why the push to unmask her (so to speak) has been so pronounced this year.
On March 20, comedian Kevin T. Porter launched a Twitter thread that went viral, calling for anyone who encountered DeGeneres to respond with “insane” stories about “Ellen being mean.”
Replied TV writer Ben Simeon to that particular call to action:
“A new staff member was told, ‘Every day she picks someone different to really hate. It’s not your fault, just suck it up for the day and she’ll be mean to someone else the next day.’
"They didn’t believe it, but it ended up being entirely true."
If that were an isolated case, it would be easily dismissed.
But more of these stories began to emerge, and each one - even if only partially true - painted a worse picture than the last.
DeGeneres has not directly responded to these accusations, but a source told celebrity gossip magazine Us Weekly shortly after they started coming out that "Ellen is at the end of her rope."
What does this actually mean and will we see any changes or statements from DeGeneres or her team?
We can't say at the moment, but it will be very interesting to see what happens, to put things mildly.