The Ellen DeGeneres Show (often shortened to Ellen and stylized in all lowercase) is an American television variety comedy talk show hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it is produced by Telepictures and airs in syndication, including stations owned by NBCUniversal.^[2] For its first five seasons, the show was taped in Studio 11 at NBC Studios in Burbank, California. From season 6 onwards, the show moved to being taped at Stage 1 on the nearby Warner Bros. lot.^[3] Since the beginning of the sixth season, Ellen has been broadcast in high definition.

The show has received 166 Daytime Emmy Award nominations and has won 61 Daytime Emmy Awards as of 2019, including four for Outstanding Talk Show and seven for Outstanding Talk Show Entertainment, surpassing the record held by The Oprah Winfrey Show, which won nine. The show also won 17 People's Choice Awards. The talk show's YouTube channel is in the top 20 most-subscribed YouTube channels. On May 21, 2019, DeGeneres announced she had signed for three more years, renewing the show through 2022.^[4][5][6][7]

The program combines comedy, celebrity, musical guests, and human-interest stories.

The program often features audience participation games where prizes are awarded.

During her Twelve Days of Giveaways promotion, audience members receive roughly $1,000 worth of prizes on each of twelve episodes.

Because the show has become so popular, not all who arrive hoping to see a taping can fit into the studio, so an offshoot space, dubbed by Tom Hanks "The Riff Raff Room", was created. Persons seated here are often referenced and shown briefly on camera but watch the taping from off-stage. Other non-celebrities have been featured in an attempt by DeGeneres to give them 15 minutes of fame. Guests in this role have included intelligent children, small business owners, etc. In the show's third season, DeGeneres began surprising fans by introducing them to their favorite celebrities.

Several recurring sounds, gags, and catchphrases are used by DeGeneres depending on the topic of discussion or theme for a specific episode.

For example, after DeGeneres says the phrase, "Aww Snap!", a sound effect of a whip cracking often is played.

In her monologue, DeGeneres frequently thanks the audience's applause by saying "I feel the same way about you!" Other video segments include DeGeneres scaring people, playing pranks, taking part in faux-breaking news segments, interacting with crew members, etc. Other recurring segments include those where DeGeneres comments on Internet videos, tabloid-style photographs of celebrities, advertisements on Craigslist, or voicemails left for her on an answering machine. Some segments feature audience members more prominently, including having audience members show hidden talents, pictures of others that resemble DeGeneres, interviewing children, etc.

DeGeneres frequently plays games with audience members and awards prizes based upon their performance.

Games have included Pictionary-style drawing games, finding hidden objects within the studio, category, current event or pop-culture-based trivia, and various other stunt and charade-based games. DeGeneres also joked several times on the show about when a sequel to Finding Nemo, in which she famously had a lead role, would eventually release, as well as make references to the film. Eventually, the sequel, Finding Dory

The show has many recurring segments throughout the years.

Some include:

Heads Up!

Heads Up! is a game that DeGeneres plays with other celebrities. Originally, the game had players guess words or phrases on physical cards held to their foreheads by watching the other players act it out or give hints as time counted down. Later, DeGeneres and Warner Bros. Entertainment developed an app version of the game. The app became a huge success after its May 2013 launch, rising to the top of the App Store with over 650,000 downloads during its first month. By July 2016, it had been downloaded more than 25 million times and remained one of Apple's top-paid apps.^[9]

Since the show's debut, DeGeneres has segued from her opening monologue by doing a dance.

The dancing proved to be extremely popular with viewers, and has since progressed to a segment where DeGeneres dances into the audience, sometimes borrowing a coat or purse from someone's chair, and taking it with her.

She has also featured a segment in which people teach her new dance moves.

One of her most famous dance moves is dancing over the table, where she straddles the coffee table and dances from one end to the other.

Although she does not do it every day, dancing over the table is a recurring theme.

As an April Fools' Day prank in 2009, the show's staff placed a wider table top over her normal table. During the show, when DeGeneres attempted to dance over it, she barely made it across, being forced on her tip-toes and using the table as leverage. On the seventh-season premiere, DeGeneres performed a dance segment with the cast of So You Think You Can Dance

In September 2009, four major record labels sued the producers of the show for unspecified damages over the dance routine, for allegedly using songs without permission.^[10]

Sophia Grace Brownlee (born April 18, 2003^[11]) and her cousin Rosie McClelland (born September 7, 2006^[12]) were first invited to the show after DeGeneres saw their YouTube video cover of "Super Bass" by Nicki Minaj, which Sophia Grace and Rosie posted on YouTube on September 19, 2011.^[13] The then eight- and five-year-old Essex, England natives became recurring cast members on the show, where they hosted their own segment called "Tea Time with Sophia Grace and Rosie". In the segment, the duo invites and interviews guest celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Hugh Grant, Julie Bowen, Harry Connick Jr., LL Cool J, Justin Bieber, and Reese Witherspoon over to tea. Sophia Grace and Rosie won the "Choice Webstar" at the 2012 Teen Choice Awards for this segment. They have also been correspondents during the red carpet events such as the Grammy Awards, the American Music Awards, the Billboard Music Awards, and the MTV Video Music Awards. They appeared in the third episode (June 2013) and the eleventh episode (September 2013) of Sam & Cat. According to her representative, Sophia Grace had been cast as Little Red Riding Hood in Walt Disney Pictures' film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, but she withdrew before production.^[14] Sophia Grace and Rosie starred in their own movie called Sophia Grace and Rosie's Royal Adventure.

DeGeneres's mother, Betty, attends the show regularly and is frequently featured on camera.

From 2003 to early 2008, the program was originally taped in Studio 11 at NBC Studios in Burbank, California. It is now filmed in Studio 1 (named "The Ellen Stage" since her 2,000th show, which took place in November 2015) on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank.

The executive producers are DeGeneres, Mary Connelly, Ed Glavin, Andy Lassner, and Jim Paratore. The writing staff has included Karen Kilgariff (former head writer), Karen Anderson, Margaret Smith, and DeGeneres. Margaret Smith left the show to work on her own projects, including her first book, What Was I Thinking? How Being a Stand Up Did Nothing to Prepare Me to Become a Single Mother (Crossroad Publishing, 2008). Amy Rhodes, a former writer for the program, regularly appeared on camera during various segments.

Unlike most talk shows, the show uses a disc jockey to supply music rather than a band. Originally, the role was filled by Los Angeles-based DJ Scott K, who lasted only a few weeks. He was later replaced by Tony Okungbowa, who DJed through season 3. Due to his growing acting career, Okungbowa left the show, and a few guest DJs were brought in to try out for the position. Tony was replaced by actor/DJ Jon Abrahams for the fourth-season premiere. Abrahams stayed on the show for one season, and also left as his acting career grew. Ted Stryker of KROQ, was the DJ for the fifth season. Stryker stayed for one season until Okungbowa returned. In a 2012 episode, DJ Pauly D from Jersey Shore

Starting in season 11, several episodes include celebrity "guest DJs" filling the DJ position in Okungbowa's absence.

The most frequently appearing guest DJ is Stephen "tWitch" Boss of So You Think You Can Dance

Okungbowa made a return appearance on the show in the April 28, 2014 episode, while Loni made a return in the June 5, 2015 episode.

DeGeneres, a member of the Writers Guild of America, supported the 2007 writers' strike.^[15] However, on November 9, 2007, DeGeneres crossed the picket line to tape more episodes of her TV show stating:

DeGeneres decided to abstain from doing a monologue on her show (which is typically written by WGA writers) during the strike.^[16] Her show continued production as normal with the exception of her monologue being omitted.

The WGAE issued a statement condemning DeGeneres, stating she was "not welcome in NY."^[17] DeGeneres's representatives asserted that she did not violate the WGA's agreement, arguing that she is competing with other first-run syndicated shows like Dr. Phil and Live with Regis and Kelly during the competitive November sweeps period, and that DeGeneres must fulfill her duties as host and producer, lest her show lose its time slot or be held in breach of contract. In addition, a statement defending DeGeneres was subsequently issued by AFTRA, pointing out that DeGeneres also works under the AFTRA TV Code, which bars her from striking. The WGAE then issued a response pointing out that DeGeneres is also a Writers Guild member, and that any writing work she did on her show during the strike constituted struck work.^[18][19]

Several episodes have aired with a special theme or format, including a "Backwards Show", entire episodes themed around Broadway productions, a Thanksgiving special taped in the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, an entire episode which included Deltalina filmed on a Delta airplane, her 12 Days of Giveaways shows and Ellen's Birthday Show. Other recurring themes feature products from sponsors DeGeneres likes (similar to Oprah's Favorite Things from the now ended The Oprah Winfrey Show), specials following awards show telecasts (such as the Academy Awards), and numerous milestone episodes (e.g., DeGeneres's 1,000th, 1,300th, 1,500th, etc. broadcasts). In 2017, an episode aired commemorating the 20th anniversary of "The Puppy Episode", the episode of her sitcom Ellen, in which her character Ellen Morgan came out as a lesbian.

The episode titled "Sirdeaner Walker Interview" was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for "Outstanding Talk Show Episode" during the 21st GLAAD Media Awards.^[20]

On January 11, 2013, DeGeneres announced that she was going to Australia in March with her wife, Australian actress Portia de Rossi, after having wanted to go for many years, being unable to visit in summer (which she preferred) due to taping conflicts of her show.^[21] Toward the end of the episode, which featured Nicole Kidman as a guest, she announced to the audience that they will also be going on a holiday to Australia in a giveaway special.

On March 3, 2014, DeGeneres hosted the show live, one day after her being the host of the 86th Academy Awards. This episode features that year's Oscar winners Cate Blanchett, Jared Leto, and Lupita Nyong'o as guests.

From time to time a guest host has filled in for DeGeneres.

This was previously quite rare, but has gradually become more common, especially in recent seasons.

Guest Co-Hosts

DeGeneres has also occasionally co-hosted the show with guest co-hosts, which have included:

The show has been met with considerable success, and has won 61 Daytime Emmy Awards by 2019. Additionally, as the show's popularity has increased, the program has appeared as a plot element in the storylines of several scripted television programs, including Joey, Six Feet Under, and The Bernie Mac Show

The show averages around 4.2+ million viewers per episode, according to syndicated daytime television ratings, making it a highly viewed daytime show.^[51] It usually only trails behind Live with Kelly and Ryan, and Dr. Phil in total viewers. In 2017, the show passed Live with Kelly and Ryan for the first time and trailed behind Dr. Phil.^[52]

The show has won a total of 61 Daytime Emmy Awards by 2019, including four for Outstanding Talk Show (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007) and seven for Outstanding Talk Show Entertainment (2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019). The show first fourteen seasons surpassed the record held by The Oprah Winfrey Show, which received 47 Daytime Emmy Awards before Winfrey chose to stop submitting it for consideration in 2000. DeGeneres herself has won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host four times (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008). The show has also won 46 Daytime Emmys in Writing(8 total), Directing(6 total), and Technical Categories(32 total). It won the Genesis Award for "Best Talk Show" in 2010 and 2012. DeGeneres has won the People's Choice Award for "Favorite Daytime TV Host" 14 times, making her the most awarded person in the People's Choice Awards's history.^[53]

At the 2018 Webby Awards, Heads Up! A Party Game from Ellen!, a video game for iOS and Android, won the People's Voice Award for "Word & Trivia".^[54]

In 2017, the show received a game-show spinoff called Ellen's Game of Games