May 14
Ellen DeGeneres Set for New, Final Comedy Special on Netflix
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Out queer comedian and former talk show host Ellen DeGeneres will be coming back to Netflix with her new standup set for what she says will be her final special.
The so-called "Queen of Mean" promised in a statement that she is going to "talk about it" in the special, Variety reported.
"To answer the questions everyone is asking me – Yes, I'm going to talk about it," DeGeneres said in a statement, Variety relayed.
"Yes, this is my last special. Yes, Portia really is that pretty in real life," Ellen's statement continued, referring to the comedian's wife, Portia de Rossi.
"The comedian and talk show legend is most likely referring to her controversial exit from 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' in 2022, after allegations of a toxic workplace, which included accusations of harassment from executive producers," Variety noted.
The allegations damaged her reputation. With her ratings in decline, Ellen chose to end the show, and has scarcely been heard from until her new show, "Ellen's Last Stand...Up Tour."
As previously reported, DeGeneres talked about the fallout from the "Queen of Mean" allegations, telling a crowd in West Hollywood that she had been ejected from show business twice over, the first time being after her watershed coming out during the run of her sitcom "Ellen" in 1997. The sitcom ended the following year.
After "Ellen," DeGeneres starred in another sitcom, the short-lived "The Ellen Show," which ran for one season in 2002. Her talk show, "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," ran from 2003 - 2022, and racked up more than 30 Primetime Emmys.
Ellen's second experience being "kicked out of show business" came with the "Queen of Mean" allegations, she told her West Hollywood audience, and the experience took "such a toll on my ego and my self-esteem," she said.
"There's such extremes in this business, people either love you and idolize you or they hate you, and those people somehow are louder."
No date was given for the new special's arrival at Netflix other than that it is expected late this year.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
