Photo: Michael Rozman & Sarah Haas/Warner Bros.
Ellen DeGeneresis ready for one last dance around the studio.
“Welcome to our very last show,” a dapperly dressed DeGeneres says in the clip, her eyes welling up with emotion as she receives a standing ovation from an audience of eager viewers (including wifePortia de Rossi, standing in the front row).
Prior to her entrance, the show cuts through 19 years of DeGeneres hellos from every season premiere starting with the 2003 debut, in which the stand-up star hilariously watched her own show from a couch.
Since the beginning, a lot has changed for DeGeneres. She started the series as her career was just beginning to bounce back fromthe backlash she received after coming out in 1997, growing over the following two decades into one of the most visible and decorated comedians working in the industry.
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DeGeneres revealed last May that her show would be ending, in an announcement that came months after the program was embroiled in controversy overallegations of workplace toxicity. She toldThe Hollywood Reporterat the timethe scandal was not the reason behind the decision.
Looking back on on her run after the taping of her final episode in April, DeGeneres thanked viewers for all their support over the years.
“When we started this show in 2003, the iPhone didn’t exist. Social Media didn’t exist. Gay marriage wasn’t legal. We watched the world change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not,” DeGeneres said. “But whatever was happening, my goal was always for the show to be a place where we could all come together and laugh for an hour.
“Being invited into your lives has been the greatest privilege of my life and has brought me incredible joy,” she added. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
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Thursday’s finale will featurePink, who wrote the show’s Emmy Award-winning theme song, as well asBillie Eilish.
Jennifer Aniston, the first guest on theEllenshow’s first episode in 2003, will have a full-circle moment as she appears as DeGeneres' last guest.
TheEllen DeGeneresShowairs in syndication (check local listings).
source: people.com
