Ellen DeGeneres Thanks “Amazing” Staff During People’s Choice Award Acceptance Speech: “I Love Them All”
On Sunday night, Ellen DeGeneres won the trophy for Daytime Talk Show of 2020 at the E! People’s Choice Awards. Upon accepting the award, the talk show host made sure to thank her “amazing” staff. This award comes after her show has been marred for a toxic work environment which has caused many to raise eyebrows.
DeGeneres appeared in-person on stage to accept her award at the hybrid ceremony. “Thank you. From deep, deep down in my heart, I thank you.,” she said. “I am not only accepting this award for myself but on behalf of my amazing crew and staff who make the show possible they show up every single day, give 100 percent of themselves, 100 percent of the time. That’s 250 people, times 170 shows a year, times 18 years, if you carry the 2 and divide it by 11— my point is, I love them all. And I thank them all.
“I know [where] this award comes from — thank you to the people,” she continued. “Thank you to all of my fans for supporting me, for sticking by me. I cannot tell you how grateful I am. This means more than I can say.”
She then joked about the trophy, “I’m gonna wipe it down with Lysol and put it on my shelf.”
DeGeneres returned to the studio in September and addressed the allegations of a toxic workplace environment which was detailed in a Buzzfeed article. “I learned that things happened here that never should have happened,” she said. “I take that very seriously and I want to say I am so sorry to the people who were affected.”
The article included former staffers for the daytime talk show and their claims of racist comments and other abusive behavior from current employees and top-level staff. Upon the claims, WarnerMedia launched an investigation into the workspace and former executive producers Ed Glavin, Kevin Leman and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman exited the program.
