The Ellen DeGeneres Show
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- For the television sitcom, see: Ellen (TV series), and The Ellen Show
| The Ellen DeGeneres Show | |
|---|---|
 The Ellen DeGeneres Show title card |
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| Genre | Talk show |
| Running time | 1 hour |
| Creator(s) | Ellen DeGeneres |
| Starring | Ellen DeGeneres |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original channel | Syndication |
| Original run | September 8, 2003–Present |
The Ellen DeGeneres Show, often shortened to Ellen, is a syndicated television talk show hosted by actress/comedienne Ellen DeGeneres and distributed by Warner Brothers Television. The show features interviews with celebrities as well as non-celebrities, and comedic monologues by the host. It premiered on September 8, 2003.
The show was nominated for 11 Daytime Emmy Awards its first season, winning four, including Best Talk Show. It gained 12 nominations in its second season and won 6 Emmys, including Best Talk Show and Talk Show Host.
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[edit] Concept
The premise of Ellen is similar to other daytime television talk shows, such as The Rosie O'Donnell Show. The program mixes in comedy, celebrity and musical guests, and human interest stories. Unlike most talk shows, the show uses a disc jockey to supply music rather than a band. The program is not characterized as a tabloid talk show, nor does it give advice. [1]
Ellen is known for its use of recurring sarcastic jokes and gags, some of which have eventually petered out. Since the show's debut DeGeneres has segued from her opening monologue by doing a dance. The dancing proved to be extremely popular with viewers, and has since progressed to a two minute segment where DeGeneres dances into the audience, sometimes "borrowing" a coat or purse from someone's chair, and taking it with her. She has also featured a segment in which people teach her new dance moves.
Early popularity of the show resulted from DeGeneres making viewers feel as though they were a part of the "family" of crew and employees on the show itself. A popular crew member, aspiring stunt man Houston (pronounced "How-Ston"), frequently featured during the first broadcast year. He was set up on a variety of blind dates, and a segment called "Have Houston Do It For You" in which he was sent to people's homes to help with tasks like putting up Christmas decorations or remodeling a bathroom.
Similar to The Rosie O'Donnell Show, DeGeneres often has audience participation games where prizes are awarded. During her "Twelve Days of Giveaways" promotion she gives about $1,000 worth of prizes to the entire studio audience (and a handful of home viewers as well) for 12 days in a row leading up to Christmas. Because the show has become so popular, not all who arrive hoping to see a taping can fit into the studio, so an off-shoot space referred to as "The Riff Raff Room" was created. Persons seated here are often referenced and shown briefly on camera but watch the taping from off-stage.
DeGeneres's mother Betty DeGeneres regularly attended the show and was frequently featured on camera, but she stopped appearing regularly early in 2006. Her chair was designated the "Mama" chair and special privileges are given to the audience member who sits in it.
Ellen has also helped many people to be "famous for 15 minutes" by having them as guests on the show for no reason in particular. The owner of a small shop called "Mostly Moose and More" appeared as a guest, as well as Jim "Carl," the audience member who refused to dance.
In the show's third season, a new part of the format was added, in which Ellen surprised fans by introducing them to their favorite celebrities. On May 18th, 2006, the show celebrated its 500th episode.
Ellen premiered its fourth season on September 4th, 2006 with a new set and on-screen graphics. Jon Abrahams replaced Tony Okungbowa as the DJ, as Okungbowa left on May 22, 2006 to advance his career in Hollywood. [1]
The show was featured in an episode on the NBC sitcom Joey, with the main character (Joey Tribbiani) as a guest star. It was also featured on an episode of the HBO series Six Feet Under and The Bernie Mac Show, with Bernie Mac appearing as a guest. Still later, it was featured on an episode of the ABC show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition; while the Holmes family of Altamonte Springs, Florida was receiving a new home, they were in the audience during an episode of the show, and saw the unveiling of a secondary project of Ty Pennington's team, a turtle habitat, while there.
The show averages about 3 million viewers per episode (Daytime TV ratings). Oprah gets about 9 million.
[edit] Starring
- Ellen DeGeneres — Host
- Scotty K — Show DJ (9/8/03–9/29/03)
- Tony Okungbowa — Show DJ (2003–2006)
- Jon Abrahams — Show DJ (2006–)
[edit] Repeated quotes
"Oh, Mama!"
"How dare you!"
"KAAAA!"
"Holla!"
"Whoozat!"
"scAAry!"
"Right back at ya!"
[edit] Segments
- "Picture Juxtaposition" - Used in "Ellen : The Musical!"
- "My Crazy Dreams" - Ellen makes viewer's requests and dreams come true in this segment.
- "Clip From The Future" - Ellen shows us "possible" future happenings in this segment.
- "Clip From The Past" - Ellen shows us the past happenings in this segment.
- "Hidden Audience Talents" - Ellen invites a few audience members to display their talent.
[edit] Games
[edit] Special episodes
- "Backwards Show" - Events and segments unfold in reverse. The "end" of the show now takes place at the beginning and the "beginning" of the show takes place at the end. DeGeneres performs her opening monologue and dance at the end of the actual hour.
- "Two Shows In One" - DeGeneres gives us "two" shows in one episode. She wears two different outfits, gives two different monologues, and dances twice.
- "Ellen: The Musical" - Similar to a Broadway musical, DeGeneres conducts her usual interviews but the guests eventually break out into song. Guests included Jack Black and Kristen Chenoweth. At the end of the hour, Ellen and company sing "Breathe From Your Hoo-Hoo" as their finale.
- "Ellen Thanksgiving Special" - From Ed Sullivan Theater in New York.
[edit] International
[edit] Australia
Ellen premiered in early February 2006 on Australian Pay-TV channel Arena, shortly after it premiered on Network Ten a major Australian commercial television broadcaster. Ten has since pulled Ellen from its schedule in July 2006. Ten has now completley pulled Ellen from it's program list(as of last week)and it seems it will not return, with the exception of the two weeks in Christmas to fill in for Ten Morning News while it's on break.
[edit] Canada
Ellen is aired everyday on Citytv/A-Channel stations simultaneously as the US broadcast. The show premiered on the same date as the US version and reruns showing on cable channel Star!.
[edit] New Zealand
Ellen premiered on 7th February 2006 in New Zealand on free-to-air network television Television New Zealand TV One. Episodes air approximately one week behind US air dates.
[edit] Philippines
Ellen premiered on 15th October,2005 on Solar Entertainment Corporation's ETC 2nd Avenue, weekdays at 8:00pm (GMT 20:00). Episodes are delayed by one day from the U.S. telecast (e.g. an episode originally airing on Monday in the U.S. will air Tuesday on ETC 2nd Avenue; Friday's episode will air on Monday).
[edit] Singapore
Ellen is aired on weekdays at 5:00pm (GMT 09:00) on Mediacorp's MediaCorp TV Channel 5. The episodes air approximately six months behind US air dates.
[edit] United Kingdom
Ellen started airing on October 16th on the new TV channel Five Life Monday - Friday with two episodes every weekday from the current series. (Until they catch up with episodes currently airing in the US).
[edit] References
- ^ Catlin, Roger. "DAYTIME HOSTS TAKE A FRESH, GENTLER PATH". The Hartford Courant, September 17, 2003.
