Ellen DeGeneres’ co-host DJ tWitch shares how he really feels about talkshow ending
DJ tWitch, Hillary Clinton and Ellen DeGeneres seen during a taping of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” Season 13 on 8 September 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Gershoff/WireImage)
Ellen DeGeneres’ co-host DJ tWitch said he wasn’t surprised the show was coming to an end, but he admitted his emotions are “going to be very overwhelming” as the end grows closer.
DJ tWitch – whose real name is Stephen Boss – told E! News that DeGeneres had said the daytime show would come to an end “three years ago” when she “signed on for three more years”. He added: “So I felt that she was going to stay true to that. It actually didn’t come as a surprise because she had already said it, you know?”
DeGeneres announced in May that her talk show would come to an end after its 19th season, which is set to air in 2021/2022. The comedian said the decision to cancel the show had been years in the making. She also claimed the deciding factor behind ending the show is because she feels it’s no longer a “challenge”, which she said is detrimental to her creativity.
DJ tWitch, who has been part of the show since 2014, shared that he was “proud” of his longtime colleague for ending the show. He told E! News: “Because I know that she’s been at it for 18-plus years now, and it’s not easy.
“We’ve employed thousands and thousands and thousands of people, changed a lot of lives, but that’s something to do that same thing every single day.
“And I’m proud of her that she’s kind of put an earmark on the closing of a saga to begin her next chapter. Because that’s huge and monumental in itself.”
tWitch explained that he knows his emotions are “going to be very overwhelming” as time inches towards “that last of filming”. He said he will try to “enjoy it” as much as he can because the experience has been “such a huge blessing”.
“Even just thinking one more year, it’s like, man, this is going to be our farewell season so I know we’re going to continue everything we’ve been doing but it’s going to be bumped up a notch,” he said.
“And just the idea of the help and the love and the laughs that have come from the show and then you put the notion of ‘We’re going to go out with a bang’, on top of that? Like that’s really exciting.”
Ellen DeGeneres has said that the recent controversies surrounding her show played no part in her decision to end it.
However, Hedda Muskat, a former producer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, told Australia’s Channel 7 show Sunrise that the “viewers fired” DeGeneres by deserting the show.
She said “ratings have been in the toilet for a long, long time now”.
“Her show has not been fun, it has not been interesting and she’s not really, by the way, stepping down,” Muscat said.
The New York Times reported that The Ellen DeGeneres Show lost almost half its viewership after accusations of bullying, racism, sexual misconduct and workplace toxicity on set rocked the production. The outlet reported the show saw an average of 2.6 million viewers per episode in season 17. But the current season has only attracted 1.4 million per episode – a 44 per cent decline.
