An Australian television presenter is talking about his “strange” experience interviewing Ellen DeGeneres for the country version of the “Today” show in 2013.
After several current and former DeGeneres employees filed allegations of a toxic work environment perpetuated by top producers on the talk show during the day, WarnerMeda launched an internal investigation into workplace culture on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show “
One of the complaints employees had about DeGeneres is that producers often had strict rules about interacting with her, which Australian radio host Neil Breen experienced first-hand in 2013 when he was trying to arrange an interview with her while working. as executive producer on “Today”.
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She explained that DeGeneres was initially going to be co-host of the morning talk show, but the producers changed plans to the point that she wouldn’t even go to Sydney, where the show is filmed.
An Australian radio host is discussing his time with Ellen DeGeneres in 2013.
(Netflix)
“Everything was diluted, Ellen DeGeneres would do a sitting interview, right?” Breen explained on 4BC, where he now works as a host. “We took the entire ‘Today’ show to Melbourne at our expense, but she would do an interview with Richard Wilkins. So Richard Wilkins and I went to one of Melbourne’s flashy hotels, where everything was ready, just the two of us. Of course, because it’s the ‘Ellen Show’, they controlled everything. So they controlled the interview seats, the lights, how it would work, everything. “
The presenter sarcastically called the meeting a “brush of fame” for him and Wilkins before revealing the strange set of rules that the producers established before the comedian’s arrival.
“We went in and then the producers of ‘Ellen Show’, there were many of them, there were many people there,” he explained. “Anyway, the producers called us aside and said ‘OK, this is how it’s going to work here this morning. Ellen will be here at 10:15 and she will be sitting in this chair here and Richard you will be sitting in this chair Here, Neil, no one should talk to Ellen, so you don’t talk to her, you don’t go near her, you don’t look at her, she’ll come in, sit down, talk to Richard, and then Ellen will leave and we’ll give you the thing.
The host said he was surprised and asked how they were supposed to interview her after they got there without looking her in the eye.
“I found the whole thing strange.”
She also accused the producers who were there once DeGeneres arrived of exaggerating their reaction to his jokes, noting that they would “laugh and laugh” at “everything she said.” Finally she had to request that they be silent for the sake of the interview.
An Australian radio announcer recalled his ‘strange’ encounter with Ellen DeGeneres in 2013.
(Getty)
Breen didn’t say that DeGeneres was a bad person. He concluded that he would not know given the limited interaction he was allowed to have with her.
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“I don’t blame Ellen because I couldn’t speak to her because I wasn’t allowed to. So I don’t know if he’s a good person or not. I have no idea.But I can tell you that the people who work with her walked on eggshells the whole time and it was totally weird. Like, we’re there to do an interview to promote what he’s doing, but can’t you watch it? Someone becomes real.
The show’s executive producers, Ed Glavin, Andy Lassner and Mary Connelly, addressed the allegations of a “toxic work environment” in a statement to Buzzfeed News for a report in which current and former employees accused the producers of creating a “toxic work environment”. based on intimidation and fear.
‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ is the subject of an internal investigation by WarnerMedia.
(NBC)
“We are truly heartbroken and sorry to hear that even one person in our production family has had a negative experience,” they said. “It is not who we are and it is not what we strive to be, and not the mission that Ellen has set for us.”
The statement explained that the “day-to-day responsibility for the … show rests entirely with” the producers.
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“We take all of this very seriously and realize that as many of the world are learning, that we need to do better, we are committed to doing better and we will do better,” they said.
