Ellen DeGeneres just became the first talk show host to break this huge YouTube record
Ellen DeGeneres has made history among talk show hosts.
The lesbian comic and performer rakes in millions of viewers to her daytime show throughout the week.
She also has some 28 million Facebook likes and 74 million followers on Twitter, making her one of the most followed people in the world.
But now Ellen has broken the all time YouTube views record.
Her YouTube account has 20 million subscribers and is the 16th most-watched channel overall.
it’s now broken the record for the most views by a talk show host – racking up an incredible 10 billion hits.
Jimmy Fallon is just behind her with 7.9 billion views for Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Other talk-show hosts to have surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube include: James Corden’s The Late Late Show, which has 3.4 billion YouTube views, Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show, which has 2.1 billion views and John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, which has 1.3 billion views.
It could all have been a very different story had Ellen been dissuaded by some men.
The comic was the first openly gay prime-time star in America, but she has previously told of how she nearly quit comedy after a nightmare gig.
In 1997 she appeared on the cover of Time magazine and gave an interview to the Oprah Winfrey show, opening up about her sexuality.
20 years on Ellen has spoken to Time reflecting on her coming out, and how a string of homophobic performers nearly ended her career.
Ellen told the magazine: “There was a night in particular that there were two guys on before me and their stuff was very homophobic – slamming women in every kind of way.
“And no one knew that I was gay necessarily, it was just a very angry testosterone-filled crowd by the time I got on stage.
“The entire front row of guys got up and turned their chairs around and faced the audience.
“That was a night that I thought I would never do comedy again.
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“And I don’t know where those guys are now, but they didn’t get the Medal of Freedom.”
Watch the full video below:
After coming out her sitcom was axed, meanwhile religious groups began to protest outside their local ABC stations to take Ellen off air.
Despite struggling for a number of years, Ellen is now one of the most famous people in the world.
“Anger and aggression weaken you, because they take so much energy to hold in place,” she said.
“But kindness is a strength [that] makes you more serene.”
Read the full story of Ellen’s coming out here.
