Ellen DeGeneres may not be the most popular talk show host among her many, many employees these days.
But the comedian somehow remains a favorite among a much larger constituent:
The people.
On Sunday night, the embattled celebrity took to the stage inside Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, in order to accept the People's Choice Awards for Daytime Talk Show of 2020.
She tried to sound as magnanimous as possible in the process, too.
“I am not only accepting this award for myself; I’m accepting it on behalf of my amazing crew, my amazing staff, who make this show possible,” DeGeneres said.
In a vacuum, this would be a normal and not very notable thing for an award recipent to say.
However, Ellen's message has gone viral because it follows several months' worth of negative headlines during which the heretofore Queen of Nice was seemingly exposed as The Queen of Mean.
In July, for example, many ex-staffers spoke to Buzzfeed News and exposed what they described as a toxic work environment on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
They cited the aggressive, sexist and flat-out cruel behavior of multiple executive producers at the time.
Since this report came out, the producers have been fired.
And Ellen has tried to pick up the pieces.
“They show up every single day," DeGeneres continued in her awards show speech, referring to her crrew member.
"They give 100 percent of themselves, 100 percent of the time. That’s 250 people times 170 shows a year times 18 years...
"My point is I love them all, and I thank them for what they do every single day to help that show be the best that we try to make it every single day.
Ellen seemed to acknowledge the ongoing backlash against her while on stage.
Ratings for her program have been dropping precipitously since it came back on the air this fall.
“I know this award comes from the people. I say thank you to the people. Thank you to all of my fans for supporting me, for sticking by me,” DeGeneres added.
“I cannot tell you how grateful I am and what this means to me. It’s more than I can possibly tell you — especially right now.”
Two months after apologizing to her staff in a memo sent out in July, which then went public, the comedian returned to television and discussed the allegations during the season 18 premiere of her talk show.
“I learned that things happened that never should have happened. I take that very seriously,” she explained to her virtual studio audience on September 21.
“I want to say I am so sorry to the people who are affected. I know that I am in a position of privilege and power and I realize that with that comes responsibility.
"And I take responsibility for what happens at my show. This is The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
Ellen vowed to begin a "new chapter" with this new season, expounding as follows:
“The truth is, I am that person that you see on TV. I am also a lot of other things.
"Sometimes I get sad, I get mad, I get anxious, I get frustrated, I get impatient -- and I am working on all of that. I am a work in progress, and I am especially working on the impatience thing and it’s not going well because it’s not happening fast enough.
"I will tell you that.”