Three years after announcing her talk show exit, and more than two years after filming her final episode, Ellen DeGeneres entered what she says is her retirement phase with the release of For Your Approval. The stand-up special, which hit Netflix’s 2024 lineup in mid-September, may end up being her last televised stage show, and it sounds like that’s the best-case scenario for former talk show staffers who have alleged complaints against DeGeneres over her workplace behavior.
With its title serving as a snarked-up response to the wave of negative publicity making national headlines in 2020, Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval does indeed feature the former sitcom star directly addressing that controversial period, but in ways that don’t accept any responsibility for the actions she was accused of. And several Ellen Show employees had quite a few opinions to share with Rolling Stone about seeing their former boss addressing claims of being mean in front of such a massive audience.
Understandably, the former staffers spoke under the cloak of anonymity, with one noting that the comedian’s motives were recognizable just from the title of the special alone, saying:
It feels like it’s manipulative. You’re titling the show For Your Approval, which suggests that you’re trying to guilt the audience into feeling bad for you, and then you’re trying to empower yourself at the same time by saying that you endured all of this hard stuff.
In a similar vein as Louis C.K.'s 2020 and 2021 specials Sincerely Louis C.K. and Sorry, which were his first releases following his sexual misconduct scandal, DeGeneres talks about being shunned and canceled, as it were, but without ackknowleding the way in which she was sharing this message with her loyal fanbase. That sentiment came up in a complaint at least from one staffer, who said:
She made millions of dollars doing a Netflix special talking about how she got canceled, but by nature of making millions of dollars to do a Netflix special, you were not silenced. You were not kicked out of Hollywood. Most people can’t get Netflix specials.
Ellen DeGeneres doesn't stick entirely to her public backlash (which she previously called "orchestrated") throughout the special's runtime, and offers some arguably amusing non sequiturs here and there that have little or nothing to do with being a celebrity, a lot of her act does address her fall from pop culture grace by bringing up her legitimate struggles rising up the ranks in Hollywood.
Specifically, she talks about her ABC sitcom and the groundbreaking move of having a major network TV character coming out as gay, and then doing the same thing herself soon after. It was a watershed moment for media representation, and DeGeneres inspired a lot of LGBTQ+ people within the entertainment industry and beyond. But even so, those who worked with her previously don't think she should be able to use that example of facing strife to put herself on the same level as those who spoke out about the host herself. As one put it:
Even if [her cancellation] was because she was mean, that is something that she has done to other people, whereas being gay is about her being judged, and it’s interesting that she can’t see it outside of the lens of herself. It only exists as either ‘it’s happening to me because I am a strong woman’ or ‘it’s happening to me because I am gay.’ It’s impossible that ‘these are the consequences for my actions.’
While she may never outright apologize to anyone in particular for her alleged behavior behind the scenes of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and while seeing those issues spoken about with levity in the stand-up special may be triggering, the fact that she's supposed to be retiring after this special should come as good news to many of those who lodged complaints about it.
Of course, some former staffers also expressed to Rolling Stone that they doubt DeGeneres is being completely sincere about retiring, but we'll just have to wait and see whether or not that gameplay plays out.
