‘The Ellen Show’ Staffers Say Ellen DeGeneres’ New Netflix Special ‘Missed the Mark’ – Former employees say DeGeneres “continues to invalidate and deny” their experiences in her account of workplace controversies that unfolded there

Comments from former ‘Ellen Show’ staff:

* “There’s a difference between your persona and the way that you were handled in the media versus the culture that you perpetuated which hurt a lot of people. She was misrepresenting the narrative and trying to reframe herself as not a bully…She really missed the mark.”
* “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.”
* “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.”

One Former Employee in particular says they looked up to DeGeneres when they were growing up, which made their working experience behind the scenes especially disappointing:

* “As a young person figuring out my sexuality and also being a huge fan of comedy, she [was] the perfect person to idolize. I have empathy for what she went through back then, and I wish that she could have that empathy now. Especially after all the things she went through, you would think she would try to remember or relate on a human level instead of turning everything into material.”
* “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.’ That doesn’t even come into her brain that these are consequences.”
* “The people she liked and the people that she surrounded herself with did have a great time,” one former employee says. “The favoritism was just so blatant and trickled down to the executive producers, producers, and managers. That’s kind of the point, is that the people you’re playing tag with aren’t the people that were being asked to leave the kitchen that they’re eating in so you can walk by.”
* “She is a charming person when she tries to be, but it’s also hard, because there’s a level of artifice to it. When you’ve written for her and you’ve come up with jokes that were supposed to make her seem relatable, now watching it, I’m like, I know all these anecdotes are fake, right? There’s nothing true about any of these. So it’s harder to think she’s funny.”

Of course, she’s leaning into it now. She’s seen how infamy boosts numbers, so she’s just going to continue doing herself.