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For the television sitcom, see: Ellen (TV series), and The Ellen Show

The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Genre	Talk show
Creator(s)	Ellen DeGeneres
Starring	Ellen DeGeneres
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	631 (as of 4/6/2007)
Production
Running time	1 hour
Broadcast
Original channel	Syndication, Oxygen (one week delay)
Original run	September 8, 2003 – Present
Links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Ellen DeGeneres Show, often shortened to Ellen, is a syndicated television talk show hosted by actress/comedienne Ellen DeGeneres and distributed by Warner Brothers Television. The show features interviews with celebrities, in addition to interviews with remarkable members of the public and comedic monologues by the host. It premiered on September 8, 2003.

The show was nominated for 11 Daytime Emmy Awards its first season, winning four, including Best Talk Show. It gained 12 nominations in its second season and won 6 Emmys, including Best Talk Show and Talk Show Host.

The program also airs on cable network Oxygen during late weekday nights (technically Tuesday through Saturday) at 2:00 AM, with new episodes airing a week after their first showing in syndication. The show is also available on XM Satellite Radio's Take Five channel in both the United States and Canada.

Contents 1 Concept 2 Starring 3 Repeated quotes 4 Segments 4.1 Games 5 Special episodes 6 International 6.1 Australia 6.2 Canada 6.3 Denmark 6.4 New Zealand 6.5 Philippines 6.6 Singapore 6.7 South Africa 6.8 Turkey 6.9 United Kingdom 7 References 8 External links

The premise of Ellen is similar to other daytime television talk shows, such as The Rosie O'Donnell Show. The program combines comedy, celebrity and musical guests, and human-interest stories. Unlike most talk shows, the show uses a disc jockey to supply music rather than a band. The program is not characterized as a tabloid talk show, nor does it give advice. ^[1]

Ellen is known for its use of recurring sarcastic jokes and gags, some of which have eventually petered out. Since the show's debut, DeGeneres has segued from her opening monologue by doing a dance. The dancing proved to be extremely popular with viewers, and has since progressed to a segment where DeGeneres dances into the audience, sometimes "borrowing" a coat or purse from someone's chair, and taking it with her. She has also featured a segment in which people teach her new dance moves.

Early popularity of the show resulted from DeGeneres making viewers feel as though they were a part of the "family" of crew and employees on the show itself. A popular staff member, aspiring stunt man Houston Rose (pronounced "How-Ston"), frequently featured during the first broadcast year. In a segment called "Have Houston Do It For You," he was sent to people's homes to help with tasks like putting up Christmas decorations or remodeling a bathroom. Other staff members included Jeff Cosgrave, who was set up on a variety of blind dates, and Nate Larson, who did "the worm" and played different characters.

As in The Rosie O'Donnell Show, DeGeneres often has audience participation games where prizes are awarded. During her "Twelve Days of Giveaways" promotion, she gives about $1,000 worth of prizes to the entire studio audience (and a handful of home viewers as well) for 12 days in a row leading up to Christmas. Because the show has become so popular, not all who arrive hoping to see a taping can fit into the studio, so an off-shoot space referred to as "The Riff Raff Room" was created. Persons seated here are often referenced and shown briefly on camera but watch the taping from off-stage.

DeGeneres's mother Betty DeGeneres regularly attended the show and was frequently featured on camera, but she stopped appearing regularly early in 2006. Her chair was designated the "Mama" chair and special privileges are given to the audience member who sits in it.

Ellen has also helped many non-famous people attain their "15 minutes of fame" by having them as guests on the show. Guests in this role have included intelligent children, the owner of a small shop called "Mostly Moose and More", a flea market owner who raps in his commercials, and a male audience member who refused to dance, named "Carl" by Ellen based on the way he looks, while his real name is Jim.

In the show's third season, a new part of the format was added, in which Ellen surprised fans by introducing them to their favorite celebrities. On May 18, 2006, the show celebrated its 500th episode.

Ellen premiered its fourth season on September 4, 2006 with a new set and on-screen graphics. Jon Abrahams replaced Tony Okungbowa as the DJ, as Okungbowa left on May 22, 2006 to advance his acting career in Hollywood. [1]

The show was featured in an episode on the NBC sitcom Joey, with the main character (Joey Tribbiani) as a guest star. It was also featured on an episode of the series Six Feet Under and The Bernie Mac Show, with Bernie Mac appearing as a guest. Still later, it was featured on an episode of the ABC show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition; while the Holmes family of Altamonte Springs, Florida was receiving a new home, they were in the audience during an episode of the show, and saw the unveiling of a secondary project of Ty Pennington's team, a turtle habitat, while there.

The show averages about three million viewers per episode, according to daytime television ratings, which makes it one of the highest-viewed daytime shows.

• Ellen DeGeneres — Host
• Scotty K — Show DJ (9/8/03–9/29/03)
• Tony Okungbowa — Show DJ (2003–2006)
• Jon Abrahams — Show DJ (2006–)

"KAAAA!"
"Right back at ya!"
"Holla!"
"How dare you!"
"Am I right, ladies?"
"Oh, Mama!"
"Make me dance!" (to the DJ)
"Hoo, Hoo" (as an owl sound)
"Whoozat!"
"scAAry!"
"Well, Lick My Chops!"

• Audience Dancing - Ellen displays video clips of some of her audience members damcing comedically before the taping of the show, and during commercial breaks.
• Best Photos Ever - Ellen shows the best viewer photos, sometimes with a theme based on the episode or season. Sometimes, Ellen's favorite is used as the stage's background.
• Call Me - Ellen plays messages left on her answering machine for her toll-free number.
• Celebrity Look-a-Like - Ellen shows photos of viewers who think they look like celebrities. This is also modified to dogs and babies. There is also a different but similar segment where dancing audience members are shown to look like celebrities.
• Clip From The Future - Ellen shows us "possible" future happenings in this segment.
• Clip From The Past - Ellen shows us the past happenings in this segment.
• Look At You! - Ellen invites a few audience members to display their talents.
• My Crazy Dreams - Ellen makes viewer's requests and dreams come true in this segment.
• Picture Juxtaposition - Used in "Ellen: The Musical!" where random pictures are superimposed atop one another, timed to music.
• Real or No Real - Ellen invites the audience to guess whether an item or a quality of someone is the real deal or fake.
• Spanish with Señora Peña - Ellen learns Spanish with a local school Spanish teacher.
• The Men of Ellen - Ellen introduces a single man on her show during this segment, usually a man who someone has written to her about and Ellen has read during Write On.
• Viewer Art - Ellen shares artistic work that viewers have sent to the show
• Wednesday's Wunnerful World of Web Videos - Ellen shows a selection of funny videos from the Internet, usually on Wednesday.
• Write On - Ellen reads and responds to viewer e-mail.

• Audience Humdinger - Audience members hum a song that Ellen or a guest has to guess; this is done two or three times.
• Audience Charades - the production crew randomly chooses two or three members of the audience to take part in this segment.
• Celebrity - Ellen and/or a guest holds up names of celebrities that he or she has to guess with clues from the other participant.
• Chairman of the Board - The show's newest game which involves a contestant answering three questions, earning a "spin" of the board for each correct answer (highest prize: Orlando trip).
• If You Had To Choose - After the audience is polled on different questions before the show, Ellen asks an audience member what she thinks the most popular response is.
• Stranded on a Topical Island - a short game show with pop culture questions.
• Musical Chairs - Selected audience members play for a prize. A one-time variation on this substituted bean bag chairs for regular chairs.

• "Backwards Show" - Events and segments unfold in reverse. The "end" of the show now takes place at the beginning and the "beginning" of the show takes place at the end. DeGeneres performs her opening monologue and dance at the end of the actual hour.

• "Two Shows In One" - DeGeneres gives us "two" shows in one episode. She wears two different outfits, gives two different monologues, and dances twice.

• "Ellen: The Musical" - Similar to a Broadway musical, DeGeneres conducts her usual interviews but the guests eventually break out into song. Guests included Jack Black, teenaged singer-actress Olivia Olson, and Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth. At the end of the hour, Ellen and company sing "Breathe From Your Hoo-Hoo" as their finale.

• "Ellen Thanksgiving Special" - From Ed Sullivan Theater in New York.

Ellen premiered in early February 2006 on Australian Pay-TV channel Arena (where it continues to be aired within a day of its US telecast), shortly after it premiered on Network Ten a major Australian commercial television broadcaster. Ten has since pulled Ellen from its schedule in July 2006. Ten has now completely pulled Ellen from its program list and it seems it will not return, with the exception of the two weeks in Christmas to fill in for Ten Morning News while its on break. The Ellen DeGeneres Show is likely to never return to Network Ten for new episodes.

Ellen is aired weekdays on the CityTV and A-Channel stations simultaneous to the U.S. broadcasts. The show premiered the same date as it did in the United States and reruns are shown on the cable network Star!.

Ellen is aired weekdays on the national Danish network, TV3.

Ellen premiered on February 7, 2006 in New Zealand on free-to-air network television Television New Zealand TV One. Episodes airs approximately one week behind US air dates. However, during the summer (winter for America) holiday period, Ellen is totally stopped till Late January. Television New Zealand has reported receiving hundreds of complaints about this from Ellen fans. This does not seem to change the minds of TVNZ, as they often run a New Zealand based Tennis game around this time of the year. Ellen has now returned to TV One at a new timeslot of 3pm.

Ellen premiered on October 15, 2005 on Solar Entertainment Corporation's ETC 2nd Avenue, weekdays at 8:00pm (GMT +20). Episodes are delayed by one day from the U.S. telecast (e.g. an episode originally airing on Monday in the U.S. will air Tuesday on ETC 2nd Avenue; Friday's episode will air on Monday).

Ellen is aired on weekdays at 5:00 p.m. (GMT +8) on Mediacorp's MediaCorp TV Channel 5. The episodes air approximately six months behind US air dates. As of November 28, 2006, the fourth season of Ellen will begin, which is almost three months behind the US air date. Ellen is also aired on weekends at 6:00 a.m. (GMT +8) on Mediacorp TV Channel 5.

Ellen is shown on South Africa's "Mnet Series Channel" on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 18:00 - 19:00 (GMT +2) The shows being broadcast are 10 months behind the current series being broadcast in the USA. The channel is currently showing Ellen during the month of February and has recently shown Ellen's "I Like It Show" with James Blunt and Simon Cowell as of 29 December 2006. See [2]

Ellen is aired weekdays at 12:00 and 16:00 on e2.

Ellen started airing on October 16, 2006 on the new TV channel Five Life with two episodes aired every weekday. One episode has been recently shown in the US and the other was previously shown in the most recent year.

1. ^ Catlin, Roger. "Daytime Hosts Take a Fresh, Gentler Path". The Hartford Courant, September 17, 2003.

• The Ellen DeGeneres Show Official site
• The Ellen DeGeneres Show at the Internet Movie Database
• The Ellen DeGeneres Show at TV.com