Ellen DeGeneres has canceled a number of her upcoming tour stops a week after telling audience members she was “done” with being in the public eye — two years after her afternoon talk show was canceled when staffers alleged toxic behavior on set.
Ellen DeGeneres attends the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 5, ... [+]
DeGeneres unexpectedly canceled four shows in Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and Dallas after telling a stand-up audience last week "this is the last time you're going to see me," according to NBC's Chicago affiliate.
DeGeneres launched her current tour, called “Ellen’s Last Stand… Up,” in April, her first slate of live performance since 2019, according to Concert Archives, and plans to do a Netflix comedy special in the coming months.
At a stop in Santa Rosa, California last week, she reportedly told the audience she was "kicked out of show business for being mean" and said, "After my Netflix special, I'm done."
She said her ousting from her long term industry, which came after an explosive Buzzfeed report that accused her of racism and intimidation, was the second time she’d been kicked out of show business—referencing her coming out as a lesbian in the 1990s.
DeGeneres still has 14 tour dates scheduled through August — including sold-out shows in Chicago, Minneapolis and Durham, North Carolina.
Representatives for DeGeneres did not immediately respond to Forbes request for comment Wednesday.
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“Next time, I’ll be kicked out for being old. Old, gay and mean, the triple crown,” DeGeneres joked in California.
DeGeneres’s final stand up special. Netflix in March announced she would perform for one more comedy special on the streamer but has not shared a title or release date.
DeGeneres got her start as a comedian in the 1980s and, by 1984, had been named the funniest person in America by Showtime. She had several short stints on television shows before landing her own sitcom in 1994, called "Ellen." In 1997, she used an appearance on the "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to come out as a lesbian, something her sitcom character did in tandem to a therapist played by Oprah. The show ended in 1998. In 2003, she launched her daytime talk show "The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” which featured celebrity interviews and skits with guests. The show was watched by millions of people per day and received dozens of Daytime Emmy Awards. In 2020, Buzzfeed published a report in which employees of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" accused the host of toxic workplace behavior. They said they were fired after taking time off for family funerals, that DeGeneres made inappropriate comments about race and that entry-level employees were told to not speak to the host if they saw her around the office. After the report, public scrutiny of DeGeneres intensified and audience members started pointing out moments the host didn't personally live up to her "be kind" slogan in now-viral moments like when she pressured Mariah Carey into announcing her pregnancy on the show and Dakota Johnson called DeGeneres out for a lie she told on air. People who’d interacted with DeGeneres in real life started sharing unflattering stories online, and Variety published a report that accused the host essentially abandoning her crew members after the Covid-19 pandemic hit. "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" ended in 2022.
DeGeneres was ranked No. 76 on Forbes' list of America's Self-Made Women this year with an estimated net worth of $450 million.