CMU School of Drama


Friday, April 17, 2020

‘Ellen’ Crew Furious Over Coronavirus Shutdown Pay

Variety: Crew members from Ellen DeGeneres’ long-running daytime talk show are distressed and outraged over their treatment from top producers amid the coronavirus pandemic, numerous insiders affiliated with the series told Variety.

6 comments:

Elinore Tolman said...

Quarantine has not been good to Ellen DeGeneres’ reputation these past few weeks. Ellen has been stating how much she misses her crew, only for people to call her out for being a self centered celebrity who barely acknowledged the people below her. Personally, I find articles like this one infuriating. Crew members put in a lot of time and effort only to be treated like garbage and hardly recognized for their work. The fact that both Ellen and the other higher ups are not giving the crew the pay they deserve despite the show still airing is downright disrespectful. It’s even more insulting Ellen is pretending to care about her crew while cheating them out of hard earned money. Nothing upsets me more than disrespected crew members. I have lost a lot of respect for Ellen over this quarantine and hopefully the time alone gives her time to reflect on her values and how she treats others.

Mitchell Jacobs said...

This kind of sounds like a nightmare scenario. My heart goes out to these employees who have been victims of miscommunication and been betrayed by their employer. I've seen many videos and articles about the extreme demands of Ellen Degeneres both for her guests and her crew, and this seems to be yet another piece of her recent "mean streak". I hadn't realized until I did some research after reading this article that Ellen has actually has become somewhat of a villain in the eyes of the public in 2020. Though this does seem to be an issue with administration and producers, with how involved Ellen is said to be in the running of her show it is difficult to believe this isn't tied to her. It shows a pattern of disrespect towards her tech employees that is becoming a much more public issue in recent years across the entertainment industry. I think it is likely because of the general push towards advocacy for the working class people that industries are built upon and manipulate. This pandemic and the economic impacts it has for workers is revealing the truth of how much companies value their employees.

Elena DelVecchio said...

There's been a lot of talk recently about Ellen's role in Hollywood. Not only are there many rumors of her not being very nice to interns, staff, and guess alike, but her behavior this quarantine has reeked of an out-of-touch, privileged, multi-millionaire. I didn't know what to think about the rumors, but before I could even decide how I felt, the video of her crying over quarantine in her huge mansion came out and I was shocked. So, from the recent events, I'm definitely not shocked that Ellen and her producers would lack the understanding that people need their income. Everything I've heard about Ellen recently adds up to one thing: Ellen barely remembers what it's like to be a normal member of society, leading to a lack of care for her workers and their well-being. It makes me really sad to see this, because The Ellen Show could help a lot of people (especially their own workers) during this difficult time, but she seems to lack the compassion to do it. Hopefully instead of crying in her multi-million dollar mansion and posting a video of it, Ellen can take some time to think about her workers.

Samantha Williams said...

I read about this on Twitter earlier today and hoped it was some troll, but I guess it was not. Ellen really has been showing her tone-deafness a bit more publicly lately. How could someone, who on camera treats her crew like friends, leave so many people hanging out to dry? I mean more than thirty loyal employees got no communication at all? For over a month? And then to hit them with a massive pay reduction when the show is still running and can most definitely afford to pay them regularly? That is just cruel. As Ellen continues to broadcast from her home, supported by an entirely different crew, I hope her viewers acknowledge her team’s wrongdoing here. This just sucks. Ellen can sit at home handing away Shutterfly’s money and talking about how much quarantine is “the same as jail” (real sensitive, yikes), but she will have likely lost a bunch of loyal fans for failing to ensure the wellbeing of her loyal crew.

Sierra Young said...

This kind of thing really breaks my heart at this point. Growing up I really looked up to Ellen. She was one of the first female comedians I ever knew of, and my mom loved watching her so she was my first exposure to any LGBT women who people thought were funny. She had a special place in my heart, and up until I was like 8 I would tell people my dream in life is to grow up and be Ellen. That being said, it has become very evident that she's not a great person to work with, which breaks my heart. I feel that in the celebrity world we have to choose between good values and morals and good talent and that is extremely dissapointing. Besides the fact that Ellen has been just socially problematic during the quarantine, it sucks to know she's treating her crew like this. I think they are being cheated out of money they earn, and Ellen really puts on a show making everyone believe she treats them well. You hate to see it.

Emily Marshburn said...

I had heard rumors before about Ellen not being very pleasant to work with. During quarantine, however, she just does not quite seem like a tolerable person, let alone employer. I saw a video a few weeks ago (I think) about her lamenting how bored she was stuck at home. In her million dollar mansion. With her model wife. Calling her celebrity friends. While I understand the base sentiment - isolation sucks, human interaction is integral to some peoples’ lives, there is only so much you can do stuck inside one space - Ellen seems to have completely disassociated from what “normal” people are experiencing. What is worse is that she posted these clips online on her social media platforms and (I believe) to the Ellen Show YouTube channel. Her complaining about her overly privileged lifestyle is content creation for her. I just currently do not have any compassion for her or her predicament and my heart fully goes out to the employees she and the other higher-ups at The Ellen Show have jipped out of pay.