Comedian Adam Carolla has made harsh claims about Ellen DeGeneres and the working conditions during her long-running eponymous talk show.
The 61-year-old TV host recalled his experience on The Ellen DeGeneres Show 13 years ago during Tuesday’s episode of Emily Jashinsky’s podcast, After Party. He specifically made claims about the people he met behind the scenes and how they felt working on the TV set.
“[On] Ellen’s show, people were scared, and I knew they were scared,” he said. “I was just sitting in my dressing room and their like segment producer came in, and he went, ‘All right, so we went over all the stuff we’re going to talk about,’ you know, Christmas vacation or whatever it was.”
Carolla said that he was asked if he was going to talk about “meat or beef or anything like that” during his appearance. While he said he wouldn’t be discussing those topics, the segment producer still came back, right before he went on the show, to once again tell him not to talk about “meat or beef.”
The comedian then had a feeling about the producer, claiming, “This guy’s scared to death.”
Carolla explained that later on in the day, he spoke to someone who wrote for DeGeneres’s show and “signed an NDA.” When Carolla asked the writer how DeGeneres was, they allegedly called her: “Worst person — not the worst person I’ve worked for, worst person I’ve ever met.”
He also compared his experience on DeGeneres’ show to the atmosphere of Jimmy Kimmel and Jay Leno’s show, claiming the staff on those sets were laid back because the hosts were nice.
“She’s not a nice person at all,” he continued to claim about DeGeneres. “Everyone was scared of her, which means she’s mean. She’s not gonna be mean to me, I’m a guest on the show, right? I wouldn’t know it from my exchanges. I would know it from how her staff was cowering.”
The Independent has contacted a representative for DeGeneres for comment.
Carolla’s comments are certainly not the first to be made publicly about the show’s workplace environment.
In 2020, The Ellen DeGeneres Show was rocked by allegations of toxic workplace behavior, and the program found itself at the center of a scandal involving claims of sexual harassment and misconduct by producers. DeGeneres’s reputation was dented by the reports, with the presenter who had once been famed for her affable demeanor facing criticism from all sides, despite not being accused of on-set bullying herself.
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In May 2021, it was announced that The Ellen DeGeneres Show would end after its 19th season, which concluded in 2022.
During her Netflix special, For Your Approval, in September, DeGeneres addressed the toxic workplace allegations made against her. She said she was “happy not being a boss or a brand,” and that she was “just a multifaceted person with different feelings and emotions.” She also said she was “proud” of the woman she had become.
“When you’re a public figure, you’re open to everyone’s interpretation. And I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that, ‘What other people think of me is none of my business,’” she explained. ‘Because people will say all kinds of things, and you have no control over that. But you know the truth, and that’s all that matters.”
DeGeneres now lives in the U.K. with her wife, Portia de Rossi, following the reelection of President Donald Trump.
