Ellen DeGeneres Reportedly Banned Gordon Ramsay From Her Show After He Called Her Cooking “Rubbish”
By now, everyone knows that Ellen DeGeneres had the entire staff of her massively successful self-titled talk show walking on egg shells, but god forbid you warn her about the risks of on-set salmonella.
In July 2020, 10 former employees of The Ellen DeGeneres Show came out and talked to the press about daytime television’s darkest open secret. As many industry insiders already knew and chose not to discuss out of fear for retribution from the vindictive and viral sensation, DeGeneres fostered a culture of "racism, fear and intimidation" while she ruled The Ellen DeGeneres Show with an iron fist, seemingly looking for the slightest provocation to justify a tirade against an intern or an explosion on a crew member who was insubordinate enough to accidentally make eye contact with the daytime dictator.
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As one former Ellen crew member recently revealed to The Daily Mail, DeGeneres’ vengeful disposition also extended to her A-list guests, specifically to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, whose own famously abrasive demeanor got him shadow-banned from the show for eight years. Supposedly, Ramsay’s playful criticisms about DeGeneres’ cooking methods and the quality of her ingredients during a 2010 appearance on Ellen got him 86’d from the guest list faster than a production assistant who dared to take PTO in order to attend a family member’s funeral:
“(Ramsay) gave her some quip. They were doing a food test together, and Ellen offered him a sample first,” said the former Ellen cameraman, who asked to keep his name hidden for fear of retribution from his former boss. “As soon as he bit in, he was like, ‘This is rubbish. This is disgusting,’” the cameraman continued. “She didn’t like the reaction. It was like eight seasons he didn’t come back for after.”
But according to the cameraman, criticizing the DeGeneres’ cooking wasn’t the only way for a supporting performer to earn themselves a lengthy banishment from the talk show despot. Hell, sometimes, even trying to help DeGeneres was enough to find yourself on the ban list. Apparently, one The Ellen DeGeneres Show warm-up act once had his tenure suddenly cut short when he warned his boss to be careful while attempting a circus stunt.
“(One show) Ellen came out, and she was on a unicycle,” The Daily Mail's source recalled. “The anchor made a comment like 'Don’t fall!' and Ellen said something along the lines of, ‘No, I won’t.’” Just like that, there was an opening for a new opener. “She told one of her EPs, ‘Don’t let this guy on the show again,'” the cameraman said of DeGeneres’ reaction to the warm-up act’s harmless warning. “You were uninvited as a guest pretty easily.”
Considering how being mean and being nice to DeGeneres was enough to get you kicked off of the show, it’s a miracle that anyone was able to make a return appearance on Ellen. Wanda Sykes must have had some pretty serious blackmail on the Ellen host — maybe she had footage of DeGeneres giving a writers’ assistant time off to see their doctor.
