Ellen DeGeneres Tears Up in Final ‘Ellen Show’ Monologue: “The Greatest Experience I Have Ever Had”

By Greta Bjornson @greatbjornson
Published May 27, 2022, 9:21 a.m. ET

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The Ellen DeGeneres Show

Ellen DeGeneres has finally said goodbye to her namesake show after 19 seasons and thousands of episodes. After feuding with Dakota Johnson, terrifying Kim Kardashian and telling Hasan Minhaj how to say his own name, DeGeneres gave one final sign off on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Thursday, when she tearfully bid goodbye to her audience (which has noticeably shrunk in recent years).

DeGeneres kicked off her show with a final monologue in which she looked back on the start of The Ellen Show, recalling how she couldn’t say the word “gay” on air years ago and couldn’t mention her wife, Portia de Rossi. “It wasn’t legal for gay people to get married, and now I say wife all the time,” DeGeneres said.

As she teared up, DeGeneres said her show “has forever changed my life” and called it “the greatest experience I have ever had, beyond my wildest imagination.”

DeGeneres closed out her show with the help of some notable celebrity guests, including Jennifer Aniston — who was her very first guest in 2003 — plus Pink and Billie Eilish.

While she included plenty of past moments from her show, as well as career achievements like receiving the Mark Twain Prize and hosting the Oscars, DeGeneres did not mention her toxic workplace scandal. The daytime host was embroiled in controversy in 2020 after Buzzfeed News published a series of exposes detailing the not-so-kind behind-the-scenes culture of her show.

After being confronted with reports of sexual harassment and abuse on The Ellen Show, DeGeneres publicly apologized on the Season 18 premiere of her show, telling her audience, “I learned that things happened here that never should have happened. I take that very seriously and I want to say I am so sorry to the people who were affected. I know that I’m in a position of privilege and power and I realized that with that comes responsibility, and I take responsibility for what happens at my show.”

DeGeneres later slammed the accusations against her as “orchestrated” and “coordinated” in a Today Show interview in May 2021.

With DeGeneres off the air, emerging daytime queen Kelly Clarkson will take over her time slot, which is 3 p.m. in most parts of the country.