‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ Fires 3 Producers After Misconduct Scandal

Variety discovered a major development regarding The Ellen DeGeneres Show amid accusations of misconduct. The outlet reports that three senior producers have been let go from the program, a list that includes executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman along with co-executive producer Jonathan Norman. The news was first discovered by staff members of The Ellen DeGeneres Show during a meeting on Monday afternoon. Glavin and Leman will also be removed from the other shows they produce for the host, including Ellen’s Game of Games on NBC.

All three of the now-former producers were name-dropped in a July 30 Buzzfeed article that contained allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment. In Leman’s case, the report alleged that he had solicited sexual favors backstage. He also was named by a former employee for allegedly groping a victim in the parking lot. In the wake of that, Warner Bros. ended up launching an investigation into the scandal. After the report came out, DeGeneres shared a statement expressing her disappointment over all that was released, noting that this was far from the workplace environment she had hoped to create when first creating the talk show.

The show is still set to make its 18th season premiere in September, but Variety reports in its exclusive that staffers were informed the return date was pushed back a week to Sept. 14. When the series gets back up and running, Mary Connely, Andy Lassner and Derek Westervelt will continue serving as executive producers with DeGeneres also at the helm.

While DeGeneres’ name was kept out of the damning Buzzfeed article, she hasn’t skated through cleanly, either. A slew of resurfaced videos have popped up once again on social media, many of which taking on a much different meaning after all that has been learned about the show’s inner-workings, from claims of executive producers urging their guests to shower the host with praise while on the show to some reported off-putting scenes that would unfold with DeGeneres in between takes. Regarding the resurfaced videos, her interview with Priyanka Chopra in which the topic of her wedding with Nick Jonas came to the forefront. Having gone viral at the time, it picked up some more steam due to the awkwardness that came from it and the somewhat hasty discussion that at the time appeared to be light-hearted but now seem to have a different tone amid the allegations.