writes:
Sorry, but you are way off the deep end here. Ellen was never doing very
well ratings-wise. The coming out of the closet produced a ratings boomlet
for the show, that staved off its eventual demise by a year or so. In that
sense, it was a ratings coup.
Obviously, the people offended by such things were never watching Ellen in
the first place.
Have to agree with John on this one. The 'real' Ellen's sexuality was well
known before the character came out of the closet. The fact that the
character would come out was publicized for months. It did take some courage
for her to break this barrier in sit com TV but the risk to the show was low.
Ratings were never high. This may have been because of people's unease about
the real Ellen's sexuality. It is also possible that her dry and wry humor
did not strike a responsive cord in the national audience. I think more the
latter. Look at the success of Seinfeld. This was a show with an
overwhelmingly New York and to be more specific New York Jewish sensibility
and yet the show was the most popular show on TV for years. There was
something about the characters, the actors who played them and the situations
they were placed in that resonated with people across cultural lines. This
was not true for Ellen.
