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Entertainment

18th Aug 2020

Three senior producers “part ways” with The Ellen Show following misconduct allegations

Jade Hayden

There have been multiple allegations of workplace issues in the production.

Three senior producers have “parted ways” with The Ellen DeGeneres Show following accusations of workplace misconduct.

Executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman have left the long-running talkshow after allegations reported in Variety and Buzzfeed.

Allegations from staff members included intimidation, racial insensitivity, and sexual misconduct.

A Warner Bros. spokesperson confirmed to Variety this week that Glavin, Leman, and Norman have since “parted ways” with the show.

Ellen Show staffers were informed of the news on Monday via a videoconference call with DeGeneres in which she told her employees that she was “not perfect.”

According to multiple sources, DeGeneres said that producers had sometimes not been as sensitive to “humans beings” in the running of the show. She added that the allegations made against the show’s culture were “heartbreaking” and vowed to make the production of the series a smoother process going forward.

Producers Mary Connelly and Andy Lassner, who have been with the show since its inception, said that the internal investigation into the workplace culture did not point to any systemic racism on The Ellen Show, but that more effort would be made for inclusion and diversity in future.

They added that all employees, including DeGeneres, will be taking part in diversity and inclusion workshops.

The initial allegations came after a source quoted in a Buzzfeed article said that employees were working in an environment “dominated by fear.”

The report alleged that an employee had been fired for attending a funeral and that two black staff members were joked about by producers for seemingly looking alike.

“They feel that everybody who works at The Ellen Show is lucky to work there,” read the report.

“So if you have a problem, you should leave because we’ll hire someone else because everybody wants to work here.”