PP 1 - Crisis Public Relations

 The Ellen DeGeneres Backlash

Ellen DeGeneres spent many years in the spotlight as one of the funniest and friendliest celebrities in the business. The Ellen DeGeneres Show was an American daytime television variety comedy talk show created and hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The show gained a lot of popularity among all ages. But in 2020 DeGeneres faced some serious backlash due to rumors that Ellen did not treat her employees kindly and that employees were experiencing nightmares of being sexually harassed, embarrassed, and talked down to. Many more people began telling their own stories about Ellen being cruel to them, leading producers to have to confirm that her talk show was not canceled. 

As the show went on and gained a lot of popularity, rumors simultaneously circulated that DeGeneres was not as nice of a person as the show portrayed her to be. The cracks spread over the years and became evidently obvious during a memorable, uncomfortable interview on her show with Dakota Johnson. The interview seemed to be casual as if DeGeneres and Johnson were old friends. But this typical pattern was subverted and dove into awkward territory when DeGeneres asked Johnson about why she wasn't invited to Johnson's recent 30th birthday party. The implication is that Dakota Johnson is too cool for nice Ellen, or maybe that she's even a mean girl. Off-camera, a staffer confirmed that Johnson was right, DeGeneres had been invited. 

Stories of negative interactions with DeGeneres began circulating on Twitter shortly after the interview, and some of her previous awkward interviews with celebrities were brought up as proof that her public persona of kindness may not have been entirely accurate. The Johnson interview left a lasting stain on Ellen's reputation. 

Ellen had some celebrities defending her and some celebrities confirming what former staffers had said. Celebrities like Katy Perry, Ashton Kutcher, and Kevin Hart shared posts on social media attesting to DeGeneres' character. The music manager Scooter Braun shared a series of tweets speaking highly of DeGeneres saying she is a "kind, thoughtful, courageous human". Katy Perry also shared her opinion on the backlash on Twitter saying that she's "only ever had positive takeaways" from both DeGeneres and her show. Katy also tweeted "I think we all have witnessed the light & continual fight for equality that she has brought to the world through her platform for decades. Sending you love & a hug, friend." 

People.com posted a tweet about their article saying "Brad Garrett Claims Mistreatment by Ellen DeGeneres Is 'Common Knowledge' After Host's Apology. The actress Lea Thompson responded to that tweet with "True story. It is."

In March of 2020, the podcast host Kevin T. Porter initiated a viral challenge related to DeGeneres. He pledged to donate $2 to a food bank for every mean story someone had to share about Ellen. Porter received approximately 300 submissions and subsequently made a generous donation of $600 to the food bank. Granted, there's no fact-checking when it comes to these stories on Twitter but the allure of finding a disconnect between DeGeneres's onscreen persona and her real-life actions drove people to the thread. Over 60,000 people liked Porter's tweet and more than 15,000 retweeted.

More stories of the show's negative environments quickly followed. On April 16, Variety disclosed that several crew members from DeGeneres's show expressed their frustration due to a lack of communication and transparency when it came to getting paid. Many staffers saw a drastic pay reduction without any clear communication and were surprised to see DeGeneres film remotely from her home. Variety reported:

"When returning from break, the crew was paid the week of March 30th despite having no firm plans for production to resume," the spokesperson said. The pay was reduced to 8 hours from 10 hours per work day for the week of the 30th, insiders said. As of April 10, the crew was told to expect a reduced compensation of two, 8-hour work days per week. In DeGeneres's show, she often donates money that goes a long way to helping people's lives. Not retaining her staff and keeping them in the dark about their salary cuts during a pandemic doesn't match up with the person who's so kind to charities and disadvantaged guests on her show.

In July 2020, two reports of a nightmare workplace and producers sexually harassing their junior staffers were published, leaving the public image of the show, and Ellen herself, in disarray. 

Ellen acknowledged that the show had its faults. "On day one of our show, I told everyone in our first meeting that The Ellen DeGeneres Show would be a place of happiness - no one would ever raise their voice, and everyone would be treated with respect," DeGeneres wrote, apologizing in a letter to her staff about the report's allegations. "Obviously, something changed, and I am disappointed to learn that this has not been the case. And for that, I am sorry. Anyone who knows me knows it's the opposite of what I believe and what I hoped for our show." DeGeneres said. 

Ellen addressed the workplace allegations and took responsibility stating that there would be an investigation into the workplace practices. But she also claimed she was not fully accountable for the transgressions because she had put the show in the hands of producers who were in charge of the day-to-day. She wrote that because of the growth of the show she won't be able to stay on top of everything and she relies on others to do their jobs as they knew she wanted it to be done. Things would be changed and she was committed to ensuring that it did not happen again. DeGeneres also wrote that she found out people working for her are misrepresenting who she is and that has to stop. 

The Ellen DeGeneres show's workplace scandal damaged the image of the show and they lost their audience. Ratings dropped drastically and after 19 seasons of the show, DeGeneres announced in May 2021 that the series would end after that season. Personally, I think it is very upsetting how a show is being talked about as having such a positive environment, and with a slogan saying "Be kind to one another", then turning out to be the complete opposite.