Here’s How Ellen DeGeneres Addresses Her Alleged Showbiz Exile in Netflix Special For Your Approval
Ellen DeGeneres knows why so many of you are sampling her latest stand-up special. Yet she waits nearly 20 minutes to deliver the goods.
After catching her audience up on what she’s been up to since she chose to step away from her daytime talk show in 2022 — she apparently spends a lot of quality time with her chickens — DeGeneres playfully skims a crib sheet, then looks out at her audience and says, “Oh yeah, I got kicked out of show business.”
More from TVLine
The irony, of course, is that she’s saying this on Netflix — the world’s largest (and most popular) streaming platform.
Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval is being dubbed the final comedy special of DeGeneres’ career — and that much appears to be true, what with her saying “goodbye” at the end of her 70-minute set. But first she uses her platform to address her public image, which had been tarnished in 2020 following the release of a bombshell report involving widespread accusations of a toxic workplace at The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
“You all heard I was mean?” she asks. “Everywhere I go, I know everyone’s heard that I’m mean. I know when I walk into a restaurant, people are watching, waiting to see if I’ll be mean.” DeGeneres then proceeds to intimate a conversation between two patrons: “‘Do you think she’ll be mean first, then dance? Oh, she was reaching for butter. I thought she was going to hit somebody.’
“That was a big story, huh? That had some legs on it,” she says. “The first I heard about it, I came across a headline that said ‘How Ellen DeGeneres Became the Most Hated Person in America.’ Now, I didn’t see the other names on the ballot, but… it’s an impressive title. It really is. It’s a horrible thing to say about somebody — and to make it worse, there was no trophy, no awards banquet, nothing. Just the title…. It was quite a shock for me because for 17 years, there were all these polls basically saying that I was one of the most trusted people in the country.”
DeGeneres reveals that she began therapy in an effort to “deal with all the hatred that was coming at me,” and acknowledged that it was not a common situation for a professional to have to unpack. “At one point, my therapist said, ‘Ellen, where do you get this idea that everyone hates you?’ And I said, ‘Well, um, New York Times, Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Us Weekly… I think Elmo may have said something recently on an episode of Sesame Street.'”
She then suggests that the backlash she received was a result of poor branding. “Here’s the problem: I’m a comedian who got a talk show, and I ended the show every day by saying, ‘Be kind to one another.’ It seemed like a good idea, but it became a brand — a one-dimensional character who gave stuff away and danced every day up steps,” DeGeneres opines. “Do you know how hard it was to dance up steps? Would a mean person dance up steps? I don’t think so. Had I ended my show by saying, ‘Go f–k yourselves,’ people would have been pleasantly surprised to find out I’m kind.”
What follows is her recollection of the behind-the-scenes environment at the show, which supposedly involved as many games off-screen as there were on-screen. “I started a game of tag in, like, 2016, that we played all the way till when the show ended…. I would chase people down the hallways, I would chase them around the studio… I would jump out, scare people ‘cause I would love to do that, and—” After a long pause, she continues: “You know, hearing myself say this out loud, I realize I was chasing my employees and terrorizing them. I could see where that would be misinterpreted.”
DeGeneres then admits that she was “a very immature boss because I didn’t want to be a boss. I didn’t go to business school; I went to Charlie’s Chuckle Hut. I mean, it looked like I was the boss. The show was called Ellen, and everybody’s wearing t-shirts that said ‘Ellen,’ and there were buildings all over the Warner Bros. lot that said ‘Ellen.’ But I don’t think that meant that I should be in charge. Like, I don’t think Ronald McDonald is the CEO of McDonald’s.” She then chalked some of the criticism she received up to “unwritten rules, based on gender, of acceptable behavior — of who we’re allowed to be, and how we’re allowed to act,” adding: “If we don’t follow those rules, it makes people uncomfortable. And when people get uncomfortable, there are consequences.”
But DeGeneres assures her audience that she’s content now. “I’m happy not being a boss, or a brand, or a billboard — just a person,” she says. Just a multifaceted person with different feelings and emotions. And I can be happy and sad, and compassionate or frustrated. I have OCD and ADD. I’m honest, I’m generous, I’m sensitive and thoughtful. But I’m tough, and I’m impatient, and I’m demanding. I’m direct. I’m a strong woman.” That last sentiment brings the crowd to its feet.
As she starts to wrap up, she laments how difficult it is to be a public figure, where you’re open to everyone’s interpretation. “But with time, you gain perspective, which is one good thing about aging,” she says. “With perspective, you realize that caring what people think, to a degree, is healthy. But not if it affects your mental health. So, after a lifetime of caring, I just can’t anymore. So I don’t. But if I’m being honest, and I have a choice of people remembering me as someone who is mean, or someone who is beloved… I choose that.” The end. She exits stage right, then returns after a standing ovation to thank her audience, and all the audiences that came to see her on her Ellen’s Last Stand… Up Tour.
“I’m so glad I got to say goodbye on my own terms,” she remarks, “and I can’t thank you enough.” She then brings out her wife, actress Portia De Rossi, to mark their anniversary, before bidding her audience a final adieu.
What did you think of Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval? Were you satisfied with how she addressed the backlash she received four years ago? Grade the Netflix special via the following poll, then sound off in Comments.
Best of TVLine
Sign up for TVLine's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
