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Movies & TV

28th Jul 2020

Ellen DeGeneres Show workplace under investigation after claims set is “dominated by fear”

Jade Hayden

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

The Ellen DeGeneres Show workplace is under investigation following claims that the set is “dominated by fear”.

Variety reports that the daytime TV show is currently under internal investigation by WarnerMedia after multiple complaints about problems on the set and the working environment.

Show producer Telepictures and distributor Warner Bros. Television sent a memo to staff last week detailing that WarnerMedia’s employee relations group and a third party firm will be interviewing workers about their experiences on set.

This comes after source quoted in a Buzzfeed article alleged that employees were working in an environment “dominated by fear.”

They claimed that some employees faced racial discrimination and intimidation while working on the show. 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.”

At the time, executive producers Ed Glavin, Andy Lassner and Mary Connelly responded to the Buzzfeed article saying they were “heartbroken and sorry to learn that even one person in our production family has had a negative experience”.

“It’s not who we are and not who we strive to be, and not the mission Ellen has set for us. For the record, the day to day responsibility of the Ellen show is completely on us,” they said.

“We take all of this very seriously and we realise, as many in the world are learning, that we need to do better, are committed to do better, and we will do better.”

The Ellen DeGeneres Show has yet to respond to the new report.

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