The Ellen DeGeneres Show will be coming to an end after the upcoming 2021-2022 season.
DeGeneres has been hosting the series since 2003, meaning the show will have run for 19 seasons when it ends. The long-running daytime talk show inspired a number of spinoffs including Ellen’s Game of Games, The Masked Dancer, Family Game Fight, and Ellen’s Greatest Night of Giveaways.
“I was going to stop after season 16. That was going to be my last season and they wanted to sign for four more years and I said I’d sign for maybe for one. They were saying there was no way to sign for one. ‘We can’t do that with the affiliates and the stations need more of a commitment.’ So, we [settled] on three more years and I knew that would be my last. That was the plan all along,” DeGeneres said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“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,” she told the news outlet.
DeGeneres’ time in daytime was a significant step for LGBTQ representation. She launched the show five years after coming out on the cover of Time magazine. But over the past few years, the show’s ratings have dropped significantly.
Check out the full announcement below.
