5 years ago, all you would hear about in the news is Ellen and her talk show. The show was the highest rated afternoon talk show by a women host and had a wide range of viewers across the country and the world.

The show began in 2003 as a happy, go lucky type of show that television was missing. This show included an energetic host, Ellen DeGeneres, as well as several guests that visit as well. This show was meant to be a burst of energy to the viewer, with quick jokes and activities that the guests participate in with the host.

This show was a smash rating hit, with ratings solidifying a long future for the show on television.

This also brought Ellen DeGeneres back into the spotlight in the United States. She had a career fallout, with much of her outfall coming from her publicly coming out as gay in the 1990s, which halted her popularity and sitcom from shining due to homophobia in the industry.

This brought success back to DeGeneres, who had her narrative stolen after coming out as a lesbian and the fallout from that decision. This was a chance for her to rewrite not only her narrative, but the narrative of LGBT members in Hollywood who have been silenced.

The show continued with high ratings and season after season came with new highs and renewal for the show.

The show was praised for its real-life impact that was brought to people through the show. The show regularly invited audience members to come and be interviewed on the show. This would often come with a surprise. Surprises have included donations to charity, giving money to those who are struggling, giving gifts to the guests as well as more monumental moments like reuniting military families with their family members overseas.

The show showcased many groups to the broader American public. The show often put a spotlight on those who are disenfranchised in American society, such as showcasing people of color, young people, or people in the LGBT community. This brought more praise for the show to bring attention to societal issues and representation on the show. This brought many awards to the attention the show brought for diversity and inclusion in Hollywood.

Well, this all came to a halt in Summer of 2020. You see, Ellen framed herself as being the nice girl. She framed herself as being the kindest celebrity you could meet. Big mistake!

The reputation she portrayed on TV began to clash with people’s interactions with the host off set. The talk show host began going viral for stories of people having awful experiences with the talk show host. This put a damage on her reputation as being a kind person, as she was experiencing real life people speaking of her unkind ways off screen.

This only got worse after a Twitter user uploaded a tweet explaining how her reputation as a mean girl in Hollywood was a poorly kept secret within Hollywood. Apparently, it was very poorly hidden as thousands of responses of people telling their own stories of her cruelness behind the scenes.

This was made even worse (if possible) by fans and former workers of her verifying these stories as true and being an openly known secret that Ellen is the queen of mean. This brought a rumor mill on Twitter to being a real issue as verified former workers of Ellen began to chime in.

IT GOT EVEN WORSE (if possible) for the talk show host. A scathing article written on Buzzfeed outlined formers workers accounts of the toxic workplace that existed within the show. This included harassment, toxic executive producers, racism, microaggressions, anger, lack of proper payment amongst other allegations.

Former workers described being ignored or yelled at when voicing issues within the company, which rendered it impossible for any change to be made within the culture of the show. This than led to people reaching out to Buzzfeed to vent their frustration of lack of pay and a toxic environment.

This article, and the Twitter thread before it, spread all over social media. Seemingly overnight, Ellen went from the “be kind” girl to becoming the queen of mean. This switch in perception damaged her reputation badly, with many questioning if Ellen was ever nice to begin with.

Ellen released a statement that she was unaware of any issues like this happening as well as firing all three executive producers of the show after the revelations of harassment came to light.

The show ratings declined with the next season and Ellen announced the upcoming season could be her last. The show ended in 2022, at a rating’s low. Ellen became known as the mean girl and her reputation has not come back since.

Oh Ellen!