Ellen DeGeneres thanked her staff and fans for sticking by her throughout a tumultuous year while accepting an award for best daytime talk show at the E! People’s Choice Awards.
Many on social media were shocked to discover that DeGeneres’ show brought home the award after allegations of a toxic workplace environment and sexual misconduct allegations among producers marred the show’s 18th season.
DeGeneres appeared in-person at the hybrid ceremony on Sunday, when she took the stage and directly thanked her staff and the public for wading through the controversy with her.
“Thank you. From deep, deep down in my heart, I thank you,” she began. “I am not only accepting this award for myself, I’m accepting it on behalf of my amazing crew, my staff who make the show possible. They show up every single day, they give 100% of themselves, 100% of the time. That’s 250 people, times 170 shows a year, times 18 years, if you carry the 2 and divide it by 11… my point is, I love them all and I thank them for what they do every single day to help that show be the best that we try to make it every single day.”
ELLEN DEGENERES’ SHOW HITS NEW SERIES LOW RATINGS AMID REPORTS OF TOXIC WORK ENVIRONMENT
The past year saw many of the notoriously kind comedian’s fans question whether or not her public persona is actually indicative of her real-life attitude. Several staff members and a handful of former guests alleged that, in addition to cultivating a toxic work environment, DeGeneres herself was often curt and uninterested in even making eye contact with other people. In her acceptance speech, she went on to thank fans for not abandoning her amid the controversy.
“I know this award comes from the people. I say thank you to the people,” she continued. “For all of my fans for supporting me, for sticking by me, I cannot tell you how grateful I am and what this means to me. It’s more than I can possibly tell you, especially right now.”
Despite the humble attitude on stage, many of DeGeneres’ critics took to social media to question how someone could earn a People’s Choice Award amid all the controversy that surrounded the daytime talk show in 2020.
“And the bully of the year award goes too… This award sends a message that bullying is okay. The hypocrisy!” one user wrote.
“So the Ellen DeGeneres show received a People’s choice award, after all the alleged staff mistreatment?? Life is really not fair,” another user wrote. “hey who voted?”
“Im really confused on how @TheEllenShow won the daytime TV award at @eentertainment peoples choice after all that controversy,” a third user noted.
“Award shows are a JOKE! We cancelled Ellen DeGeneres for what she’s been exposed for but she still won a PCA. Honestly….wtf?????” a more outraged viewer added.
“How did the Ellen DeGeneres show just win the People’s Choice Award for best Daytime Talk Show? I thought we were all on the same page that her work conditions were horrible and that she is a terrible person?” someone else concluded.
DeGeneres returned to her studio in September after filming at her home for weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic. At the top of the show, she publicly addressed the allegations against her to her audience for the first time.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
Ellen DeGeneres accepts the award for The Daytime Talk Show of 2020 onstage for the 2020 E! People’s Choice Awards held at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif., and on broadcast on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020.
(Christopher Polk/E! Entertainment/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
A spokesperson for Warner Bros. confirmed to Fox News in August that executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman “parted ways” with the show after WarnerMedia launched an internal investigation into the allegations.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
As if things weren’t bad enough for the staff of DeGeneres’ show, last week a portion of them were affected by a round of layoffs done by WarnerMedia.