Amid the recent allegations surfacing involving Ellen DeGeneres, producers and crew of her eponymous talk show, The Ellen Show, longtime DJ Stephen’ tWitch’ Boss has broken his silence. Speaking out about the accusations that have only deepened in recent months following an exposé from Buzzfeed, Boss, who has been with the show since 2014, said, “there’s been love” on Ellen DeGeneres’ show.
“We can’t speak too much legally about it, but I’ll say this, there’s been love,” Boss told Us Weekly. “Obviously, there’s some things to address, but from my standpoint and from countless others, there’s been, love. I’ll just leave it at that until there’s a time where we can address more publicly. There’s been love and there will continue to be love.”
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Warner Bros. Television launched an internal investigation after allegations of intimidation, sexual harassment and racism surfaced. Current and former employees spoke to BuzzFeed and detailed alleged instances in which they experienced intimidation and fear behind the scenes, in addition to racism through microaggressions. They alleged that the “be kind bulls—” only took place when the cameras were turned on.
Hedda Muskat, who previously worked as a producer, provided one example of an alleged incident and said that DeGeneres “giggled” while watching a producer berate a crew member. They alleged that the show’s host simply sat by and did nothing before making a comment about “a dog.”
“I was waiting for Ellen to say something. ‘Whoa, Ed, don’t talk like that,’” Do you know what she did? She giggled,” Muskat said. “She crossed her legs up on the chair and she said, ‘Well, I guess every production needs their dog’… And from then we knew. Ed was going to be the barking dog — her dog. You could just see everybody’s faces go stiff. We’re professionals; we’re adults. We don’t need a dog to get us to do our jobs… She was the only one giggling.”
DeGeneres has since responded to the accusations. She posted an apology and addressed the multiple reports. In the letter, which The Hollywood Reporter obtained, the show’s host took responsibility for the alleged issues and said that steps “will be taken to correct the issues” going forward.
“As we’ve grown exponentially, I’ve not been able to stay on top of everything and relied on others to do their jobs as they knew I’d want them done,” DeGeneres said in the note. “Clearly some didn’t. That will now change and I’m committed to ensuring this does not happen again.”
With the ongoing investigation, there are questions about whether or not The Ellen DeGeneres Show will return, with or without its host. The show’s fate is currently unknown. However, the show’s producers say that cancellation is not part of the plans right now.
