Few found satisfaction in Ellen DeGeneres’ publicly apology Monday with some deeming it “flat” if downright “insincere.”
Degeneres opened her monologue on a deadpan tone, saying to the camera: "If you're watching because you love me, thank you. If you're watching because you don't love me, welcome."
She went on to ask her audience, composed entirely of people projected on giant screens, “How was everybody’s summer? Good, yeah? Mine was great. Super terrific.”
It was only then that she turned serious saying, "I learned that things happened that should never have happened.”
"If I've ever let someone down, if I've ever hurt their feelings, I am sorry for that."
She took responsibility for all the allegations hurled towards her, the show, and its executives, before relating, "We have made the necessary changes and today we're starting a new chapter.”
The 62-year-old joked about her nickname “be kind lady” maintaining it was "a tricky position to be in."
"If you want to give yourself a new nickname or title, don't go with the 'be kind' lady. Don't do it."
She insisted, “I am the person that you see on your TV."
"I am also a lot of other things. Sometimes I am sad, I get mad, I get anxious, I get frustrated, I get impatient and I am working on all of that. I am a work in progress."
Former employees weren’t too happy.
One of them told Buzzfeed News, “Not only did Ellen turn my trauma, turn our traumas, into a joke, she somehow managed to make this about her.”
Added another, “When she said, ‘Oh, my summer was great’ and that was supposed to be funny I thought, ‘It’s funny that you had a rough summer because everyone was calling out all of the allegations of your toxic work environment and now you’re the one suffering?’”
The popular talk show host offered the apology amid allegations of toxicity on the set of her show.
DeGeneres reportedly apologised in an email to staff back in July, making another apology in a video meeting with her team in August.
In the aftermath, a spokesperson for Warner Brothers confirmed the show has let go of executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman, and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman.