‘Ellen DeGeneres Show’ Ends After 19 Years: ‘When We Started This Show, I Couldn’t Say “Gay”’

variety.com:

Selome Hailu After 19 years in syndication, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” came to a close on Thursday with a look back, a victory lap and final guests including Jennifer Aniston, who also happened to be DeGeneres’ first all those years ago.It was announced in May 2021 that the series would end this year, coinciding with the end of DeGeneres’ contract — as well as a change in DeGeneres’ reputation due to reports of pay reduction, racism and intimidation towards crew members, though the contract was set in 2019.During the series finale, DeGeneres focused her opening monologue on how different the world is for LGBTQ+ people now than it was when the show began.“20 years ago, when we were trying to sell the show, no one thought that this would work.

Not because it was a different kind of show, but because I was different,” she said. “When we started this show, I couldn’t say ‘gay’ on the show.

I was not allowed to say ‘gay.’ I said it at home a lot. ‘What are we having for gay breakfast?’” “We couldn’t say ‘gay.’ I couldn’t say ‘we,’ because that implied that I was with someone,” she continued. “I sure couldn’t say ‘wife,’ and that’s because it wasn’t legal for gay people to get married, and now I say ‘wife’ all the time.” The camera cut to DeGeneres’ wife Portia de Rossi grinning in the audience.“25 years ago, they canceled my sitcom because they didn’t want a lesbian to be in primetime once a week.

I said, ‘Okay, then I’ll be on daytime every day. How about that?’” she added.DeGeneres ended the monologue by asking her DJ, Stephen Boss aka tWitch, to dance with her one last time.