Ellen DeGeneres is ending her talk show after 19 seasons

Ellen DeGeneres' daytime talk show is coming to an end after nearly two decades.

DeGeneres revealed to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday that the upcoming nineteenth season of The Ellen DeGeneres Show will be its last.

"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,” DeGeneres told the Reporter.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

This has reportedly been in the works for several years, but the announcement comes after DeGeneres' show in 2020 faced allegations of a toxic workplace culture, leading to the ousting of three top producers. DeGeneres apologized over the allegations when her show returned in September. She told Reporter she isn't "quitting the show because of that" but that there were times amid the scandal she wasn't sure she wanted to come back.

"With the talk show, all I cared about was spreading kindness and compassion and everything I stand for was being attacked," DeGeneres said. "So, it destroyed me, honestly. I'd be lying if I said it didn't."

In March, The New York Times reported the show lost over one million viewers following the toxic workplace scandal, a more substantial viewership decline than other similar shows had experienced. DeGeneres said Wednesday that it "broke my heart when I learned that people here had anything other than a fantastic experience" working on her show, but she defended herself as "not a scary person" and "really easy to talk to," while decrying the fact that "this culture we’re living is [is one where] no one can make mistakes." The show is set to air its last episode in 2022.