The final show, taped Friday, airs on May 26.
It's so hard to say goodbye, but Ellen DeGeneres has mustered the strength to do exactly that to her long-running eponymous talk show.
The 64-year-old daytime talk show host tweeted a picture announcing that she and her crew taped the final episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Friday. That episode is set to air May 26, bringing her storied run to an end after 19 seasons. The tweet included a photo of DeGeneres looking contemplative as she appears to look in the audience's direction.
She followed up that tweet with two more, saying, "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." She added, "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. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."
The Ellen DeGeneres Show premiered on Sept. 8, 2003 and it proved to be a dominant force in the afternoon time slot. After nearly two decades, the show hauled in 64 Daytime Emmys and invited more than 4,000 guests, generated more than 3,000 hours of TV, hosted 1.5 million audience members and gave away more than $450,000,000.
Following the finale, the show will continue to air guest host shows, compilation shows and repeats during the summer months on affiliate stations. Additionally, ET can confirm that the Ellen staff will receive series finale bonuses.
Even after all these years, Ellen fans are still learning new things about her. Just this week, Adam Levine revealed that he's the reason why DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are together. They got married in 2008.
"Although I also, and we won’t go into detail because it’s private stuff, I'm technically the reason you met Portia,” he said, prompting DeGeneres to clarify, "Well, not why I met her, but why we’re together." She added, "The reason we’re together, we are together because of Adam."
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