After coming under fire over the toxic work culture behind the scenes of her talk show, the popularity of Ellen DeGeneres (62) has fallen seriously. The presenter has already lost more than a million followers on social media in 2020.
DeGeneres has been in a serious media storm since March. For example, some (former) employees of ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ testified about “racist comments, behavior and aggressiveness in the workplace”. The fuss became so big that producer Warner Bros. felt compelled to launch an investigation into the practices behind the scenes. Ellen herself ultimately remained out of harm’s way, but three producers were fired. They are said to have been largely responsible for the “toxic culture at work” and have been accused of sexual harassment and racism. Although DeGeneres was invariably labeled as “mean” and “unworldly”.
This smear is now also felt in the popularity of Ellen on social media. In the past year, the talk show host lost more than 540,000 followers on Instagram and 612,000 followers on Twitter. This is evident from a report from GamblingDeals.com. The ratings of her show also fell by 38%.
DeGeneres is not the only well-known figure who saw many fans drop out in recent months. YouTuber Jeffree Star also lost 487,000 followers on Twitter and 444,000 followers on Instagram after a public fight with another YouTuber. Author JK Rowling saw 351,000 fans disappear after a few transphobic statements.