Ellen DeGeneres has led the self-actualization of millions of daytime TV watchers with funny dances and silly games and viral interviews with celebrities, but now she’s deciding whether she wants to walk away from all that. In a New York Times profile pegged to the release of her first stand-up special in 15 years, DeGeneres discussed her frustrations with her Ãœber-nice, squeaky-clean TV image and revealed that she is pondering whether to leave Ellen. She recently extended her contract until the summer of 2020, “although she had been close to declining,†and apparently she goes back and forth on whether to leave the show after then. Her brother says “in the age of Trump, the country needs her positive, unifying voice on television,†while her wife, Portia de Rossi, says she should do something else. “I just think she’s such a brilliant actress and standup that it doesn’t have to be this talk show for her creativity,†de Rossi said. “There are other things she could tackle.â€
DeGeneres’s special, self-consciously titled Relatable, pushes her away from the version of herself we see on daytime TV, according to the Times, though it will still include videos of adorable animals (“even though de Rossi told her it was too much like her talk showâ€). In the profile, she also responds to the tabloid reports that claim she isn’t kind to the people she works with. “That bugs me if someone is saying that because it’s an outright lie,†DeGeneres said. “The first day I said: ‘The one thing I want is everyone here to be happy and proud of where they work, and if not, don’t work here.’ No one is going to raise their voice or not be grateful. That’s the rule to this day.â€