What's It Like to Work for Ellen Degeneres? Here's What the 'Ellen Show' DJ says
The Ellen DeGeneres Show house DJ Stephen "tWitch" Boss weighed in on what it was like to work on the show, and he had largely positive things to say about the day-time talk show.
Boss, who has worked as the show's DJ since 2014 offered brief insight in an interview with Us Weekly on Tuesday. "We can't speak too much legally about it, but I'll say this, there's been love," he said. "Obviously there's some things to address, but from my standpoint and from countless others, there's been love. I'll just leave it at that until there's a time where we can address more publicly. There's been love and there'll will continue to be love."
Boss also said that he was itching to go back to work, after the show moved to an at-home format due to COVID-19. Still, the 37 year old DJ said it was likely that he would miss the time getting to stay at home with his wife and three children. "All this time at home, being able to be with the kids and the family and all that, it's just like you know the day when they're like, 'OK, everything's done everybody go back to work,' I think everybody's going to have a little bit of separation anxiety," he said.
Boss' publicist did not respond to Newsweek's emailed request for comment in time for publication.
On July 16 Buzzfeed News shared an article featuring former employees from the show, saying that they experienced "racism, fear, and intimidation" while working on the show. Many people in the piece placed blame on managers and executive producers, but one person said that DeGeneres should be held accountable, since it is her show. "If she wants to have her own show and have her name on the show title, she needs to be more involved to see what's going on," one employee told Buzzfeed.
In a statement to Buzzfeed by executive producers, Ed Glavin, Mary Connelly, and Andy Lassner, the trio said they took the allegations very seriously and took responsibility for the issues in the workplace. "For the record, the day to day responsibility of the Ellen show is completely on us. We take all of this very seriously and we realize, as many in the world are learning, that we need to do better, are committed to do better, and we will do better," they said.
DeGeneres addressed the allegations on her show and spoke about firing executive producer Ed Glavin. She apologized that her show had not been "a place of happiness" where "no one would ever raise their voice, and everyone would be treated with respect."
"[I] relied on others to do their jobs as they knew I'd want them done. Clearly some didn't," she said. "That will now change and I'm committed to ensuring this does not happen again."
