Ellen DeGeneres is Stepping Back From Her Talk Show After 19 Seasons

Day time talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has announced that after 19 seasons, she will be stepping away from the show.

The long-running syndicated daytime talk show will come to an end according to an interview DeGeneres had with the Hollywood Reporter (THR).

DeGeneres, 63, had said she planned to end the show after season 16, but agreed to extend her contract by three years. She also said the allegations of workplace harassment did not factor into her reasoning for ending the show.

The host told the Hollywood Reporter that she informed her staff of the decision on Tuesday and will sit down with Oprah Winfrey on
Thursday to discuss the news.

“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 said in the interview.

In the past year reports had surfaced that Ellen’s show provided a toxic work culture, discrimination, and sexual harassment.

DeGeneres at one point had acknowledged that the atmosphere had developed into something that did not reflect the values with which she started the show, and pledged to do better.

“It almost impacted the show,” Ellen told THR. “It was very hurtful to me. I mean, very. But if I was quitting the show because of that, I wouldn’t have come back this season.”

The show’s season 18 opener had the highest rating of an “Ellen” premiere in four years but the show has lost more than a million viewers since September.

According to data from Nielsen, the program averaged around 1.5 million viewers between in the six month period between September and March. This is down from 2.6 million during the same period last year.

DeGeneres will remain as the host of “Ellen’s Game of Games,” a series based on the game segments from her daytime talk show, which airs on NBC.