On Wed, May 12, 2021 at 2:04 PM PGage <[email protected]> wrote:

> Having not watched this show, I don't know how to interpret her state
> reason for discontinuing “the show is no longer a creative challenge.” Is
> this just a dodge to allow her to deny it is because her “Be Nice” cover
> was blown, or is she saying she has been running on automatic?
>
> She lost 1.1 million viewers in current season - more than a 40% drop. Is
> that more or roughly same as comparable daytime talk shows.
>

When this subject came up last year, I did some research and saw her show
had been on the air for 17 years. We have to acknowledge that's an
extraordinary amount of time for this genre of daytime talk show. Most of
these shows last only a year or two. So when a phenomenon like Ellen shows
up the network or syndicator wants to keep the show going at all costs and
at each contract negotiation the host gets lots more money and more power.
So after 17 years Ellen is getting tons of money to continue. Maybe she's
burnt out - when Craig Ferguson made his announcement of leaving the Late
Late Show he said he felt like he'd done all he wanted a couple of years
before and when he told CBS they gave him an incentive to stay and he did a
couple more years without making much of an effort.

The other part of those deals is that the show has to continue to put up
high numbers. If an agent is pushing Actress X to be the new hot daytime
talk show host the network/syndicator has to make the decision: keep Ellen
with her high costs and solid ratings or take a chance with X who will come
much,much cheaper but might take a long time to reach Ellen ratings or
might not ever reach them. With each new contract the pressure rises as the
money grows and with the ratings drop they might have come to the point to
go cheap and take a chance on a new show.

I don't doubt there is some level of burnout with Ellen. The world in
general, especially technology and the entertainment business have gone
through massive sea changes in the 17 or 18 years she's had her show and
keeping up became overwhelming. I won't speculate who initiated ending the
show but I don't think it was a big surprise to either side and the side
that didn't initiate was relieved.

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