Popular Comedian Recalls Ellen DeGeneres’ Staff ‘Cowering’ in Fear of Talk Show Host: ‘She’s Not a Nice Person At All’ originally appeared on Parade.
It’s been roughly three years since The Ellen DeGeneres Show officially went off the air, yet the famed comedian is still steeped in prevailing controversies owing to her alleged on-set behavior.
Accused of creating a “toxic” work environment, many former crew members who worked with DeGeneres spoke out about her abusive attitude on set, leading to DeGeneres’ retiring the talk show in 2022.
While the 67-year-old Finding Nemo star has kept a mostly low-profile in the years since her show’s ending, comedian Adam Carolla recently shared his first-hand experiences working with DeGeneres on the After Party with Emily Dashinsky podcast.
Remembering back to his appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2010, the former Man Show host believed DeGeneres’ staff exhibited a far more fearful attitude on-set, especially when compared to other talk shows he’d been on.
“Ellen’s show, people were scared — real scared,” Carolla said.
While Carolla noted that DeGeneres did not personally show any hostility towards him, he went on to say that he spoke with a former writer of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, who claimed the host was “the worst person [he ‘d] ever met.”
“I talked to someone who signed an NDA, so I won’t say his name, but he wrote for Ellen,” Carolla said. “I just went, ‘How’s Ellen?’ And he said, ‘Worst person, uh, worst person — not worst person I’ve worked for, worst person I’ve ever met.’”
“She’s not a nice person at all,” the 61-year-old comedian pointedly said of DeGeneres.
“Everyone was scared of her, which means she’s mean,” Carolla continued. “She’s not going to 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.”
Since retiring from her talk show, DeGeneres moved to the United Kingdom with her wife, Portia de Rossia.
While she hasn’t been nearly as active in the entertainment industry as she once was, she’s occasionally released some comedic material, such as the 2024 Netflix stand-up special, Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval.
Popular Comedian Recalls Ellen DeGeneres’ Staff ‘Cowering’ in Fear of Talk Show Host: ‘She’s Not a Nice Person At All’ first appeared on Parade on Aug 1, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 1, 2025, where it first appeared.
