Daytime television will not be the same as Ellen has officially wrapped up its run after 19 seasons. The final episode of the daytime talk show aired on Thursday and featured a segment with host Ellen DeGeneres reflecting on the show's legacy while thanking the fans for watching and supporting her. Before speaking with her final guests - Jennifer Aniston, Billie Eilish, and Pink - DeGeneres first opened the show with a montage of clips from past years before addressing the fans.
“Welcome to our very last show," DeGeneres said, as transcribed by Deadline. "I walked out here 19 years ago and I said this is the start of a relationship. And today is not the end of a relationship, it’s more of a little break. You can see other talk shows now. I may see another audience once in a while. Twenty years ago when we tried to sell this show no one thought this would work, not because it was a different kind of show. It was because I was different. Very few stations wanted to buy the show and here we are 20 years later, celebrating this amazing journey together.”
DeGeneres is referring to how show business has changed greatly over the past two decades. She recalls how she couldn't so much as say the word "gay" on her program when the talk show was first launched, and this was after she'd already lost her sitcom because of her sexual orientation. Things are very different now and DeGeneres is proud for the part she played in advancing what is acceptable to say and display on television.
“When we started this show I couldn’t say ‘gay’ on the show," DeGeneres added. "I was not allowed to say ‘gay.’ I said it at home a lot. ‘What are we having for our gay breakfast?’ Or ‘pass the gay salt.’ [Or] ‘Has anyone seen the gay remote?’ — things like that,” she continued. “I couldn’t say we, because that implied that I was with someone. Sure couldn’t say wife, that’s because it wasn’t legal for gay people to get married. And now I say wife all the time.
Ellen Says She's Done Her Job If She's Ever Made You Smile
Even if her series and reputation experienced some turbulence over the infamous "toxic workplace" allegations, DeGeneres still feels that Ellen was the greatest experience of her life. Despite those troubles, DeGeneres also feels that she has done her part if she has ever brought joy to any viewer at a time when it was needed.
DeGeneres explained. "What a beautiful, beautiful journey that we have been together. If this show has made you smile, if it has lifted you up when you’re in a period of some type of pain, some type of sadness, anything you are going through, then I have done my job. Because of this platform we have been able to change people’s lives. This show has forever changed my life. It is the greatest experience I have ever had, beyond my wildest imagination.”
The Kelly Clarkson Show will be succeeding Ellen.