Ellen DeGeneres 'struggling' to address toxic workplace accusations as she cuts down comedy tour material

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Ellen DeGeneres is not yet ready to address the cancelation of her talk show in 2022 owing to allegation of a toxic work culture, and the comedian “is still struggling to find her voice” after the scandal.

After reportedly pulling the plug on four of her 32-date tour ‘Ellen's Last Stand... Up’ show, the former daytime talk show queen is also reportedly scaling down the extent of her material. 

Earlier, the 66-year-old television star said she was ready to address the accusations regarding her toxic workplace culture and it would be a significant part in her comedy tour. 

But a well-placed industry official is now saying that Ellen is not comfortable talking about the unflattering side of her career every night.

Ellen DeGeneres is scaling down her comedy content

After Ellen was hit with the allegations in the summer of 2020, her talk show came to an end in 2022. Several of her other projects too fizzled out over the months. 

She has, however, decided to make a grand comeback with a series of stand-up shows followed by a Netflix Special. 

The industry insider recently gave some insights about the developments, as they said to In Touch, “Contrary to indications Ellen made a few months ago that she was ready to talk candidly about her scandal and the end of her talk show in her new stand-up tour and planned Netflix special, things have changed since then.”

The souce continued, “The material she has now completed and written for this tour does NOT go very deep into her scandal at all. The bottom line is, Ellen just wasn’t comfortable with the idea of talking about that stuff night after night, and for the moment, Netflix is supporting her on this.”

The insider explained that Ellen is also trying to keep coherence between her 2018 show, Netflix’s ‘Relatable’, and the upcoming one as they will “be sitting right next to” each other for the foreseeable future. 

“Remember, Ellen has only made two stand-up specials in the last 20 years, and her last special, Netflix’s Relatable from 2018, was a massive hit with viewers and with critics. Tens of millions of people still have access to it thanks to Netflix’s giant subscriber base," pointed out the source. 

The source explained that “instead of doing a special that goes deep on her scandal,” as she earlier declared, the comedian “is only planning to make a couple of gentle, vague jokes about it and otherwise deliver a set very much in line with Relatable since it will be sitting right next to it on Netflix’s digital shelf-space potentially for the next few decades.”

They further continued, “If this sounds like an about-face from what Ellen’s vision for the tour and special was earlier this spring, that’s because it is.”

While Ellen thought this would have been the best course for her career, the industry executive doesn’t share the same opinion. 

The insider stated boldly, “And in my opinion, it’s the wrong move because Ellen has a real opportunity to address the allegations made about her head-on, admit some guilt, get some laughs, and finally move on.”

“But she has decided not to do that and I think this is a case of her formerly impeccable instincts failing her. Netflix is still behind her, but I do not think Ellen’s fans want anything but the honest truth from her at this stage, and that’s not what Ellen has decided to deliver,” continued the source.

Ticket prices are high for Ellen DeGeneres shows

Recently, it has been revealed by Ticketmaster that four of Ellen’s shows from Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago have been canceled for July and August. 

While the website did not share any details regarding the reasons for cancelations, the insider shed light on various obstacles Ellen was experiencing. 

Apart from the material, the insider hinted that the high ticket prices can also prove to be detrimental to her and restrict her from making a grand comeback. 

They shared, “The other issue with the tour is that Ellen’s charging a lot for people to see her in pretty big venues. But with prices for live entertainment right now exploding, you really have to bring your A-game if you want a massive sold-out tour.”

“So far, Ellen has avoided sampling her new comedy on the late night shows but that might be the best strategy she has to drum up more interest in her live dates,” continued the source.

“You have to ask why Ellen’s doing all this second guessing and not ready to talk in detail about what happened behind the scenes on her show,” said the source before adding pointedly, “She still has fans, but she needs to feed them red meat right now if she wants them to pay hundreds of dollars to see her.”