‘Ellen’ tapes final episode

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“The Ellen DeGeneres Show” has its final episode in the can.

The show taped the last episode April 28, 2022. It is scheduled to air May 26, 2022.

Guests on the episode reportedly include First Lady Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Garner, Zac Efron, Channing Tatum, Gwen Stefani, Serena Williams, David Letterman, Diane Keaton, Behati Prinsloo, Adam Levine and Portia de Rossi, DeGeneres’ wife.

“Ellen,” like many talk shows, often tapes multiple episodes in a single day and select episodes in advance, in this case nearly a month ahead of time. This is done for a variety of reasons, such as to accommodate the host or guests’ schedules and other projects or to make it more cost-effective to produce the show.

Many talk shows that produce episodes live or the same day will tape Friday episodes on Thursday, meaning they only tape four days a week.

DeGeneres’ taping schedule has reportedly changed over the years to accommodate her desire to work fewer days. In recent years she also began featuring guest hosts on Friday episodes.

DeGeneres announced in 2021 that she would end her talk show at the end of its 19th season.

The news came after a bombshell report of alleged toxic behavior behind the scenes at the show that resulted in several top producers being axed.

For years there had been rumblings of DeGeneres herself allegedly mistreating staff despite her “be kind” sign off line.

As both the face of the show and an executive producer, some questioned why the producers ended up taking the fall for the reported issues.

Ratings dropped 43% for the show, which typically was one of the top rated syndicated talk shows.

Back in 2019, DeGeneres announced that she had signed on for three more seasons of the show, taking it through the current season.

DeGeneres had reportedly been looking to exit the show for some time prior to that, with some sources saying she had lost interest in the show. However, she was reportedly offered a lucrative deal by Warner Bros. and Telepictures to stick around. Her new deal reportedly gave her more ownership of the show (and hence, share of profits), a salary raise plus the option to take days off in favor of the guest hosts.

The show was likely highly profitable for all involved given its high ratings and good performance in the key demos, plus the trend of talk shows incorporating more sponsored segments that let companies advertise their products and services outside of normal commercial breaks.

NBCUniversal, which airs the show on its owned stations in major markets, as said it will turn over the timeslot to “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” which will start its fourth season in the fall of 2022 in the new time.

Most stations air “Ellen” at 3 p.m. local time, making it a key part of the schedule because it leads into the afternoon and early evening block of local news starting at 4 p.m.

NBCU has not announced what show would replace “Kelly” after it reportedly lost a bidding war for newcomer “The Jennifer Hudson Show.”