Daytime talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show will officially air its last season in 2022. DeGeneres began hosting the show in 2003 and the show will have run for 19 seasons by the time it ends.
Ellen DeGeneres’ current contract ends in 2022. In an interview, DeGeneres said that she had been planning on ending after season 16 but decided to sign on for three more years.
DeGeneres said that the show no longer challenges her, and as a creative person, she constantly needs to be challenged. “I just needed something to challenge me”, said DeGeneres in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. DeGeneres also said that the decision to end the show was years in the making and was not related to the allegations about The Ellen DeGeneres Show having a toxic work culture. She said that “If I was quitting the show because of that, I wouldn’t have come back this season.”
DeGeneres will be discussing her decision on the next episode of her talk show with guest star Oprah Winfrey.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show has aired more than 3,000 episodes since September 8, 2003. Over its 18 seasons, the show was nominated for 171 Daytime Emmy Awards and won 61 of them by 2020. It also won 17 People’s Choice Awards. DeGeneres won the People’s Choice Award for Favourite Daytime TV Host 15 times, which makes her the most awarded person in the People’s Choice Award’s history.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show has three spin-off shows and in 2021 another spin-off show was announced. Ellen’s Game of Games premiered in 2017, Ellen’s Greatest Night of Giveaways premiered in 2019, and The Masked Dancer premiered in 2020.
The upcoming spin-off series Family Game Fight was announced in March 2021. Actors Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard will host the show and a 10-episode run was ordered.