Um… don’t call it a comeback? Because it isn’t working??
If you haven’t heard, Ellen DeGeneres is back. Or at least, that was the idea. It’s been a couple years now since she left her popular daytime talk show amid allegations she created a toxic work environment. And she decided to finally make her case to the public in the way she knows best — standup comedy.
The tour, which she combatively named Ellen’s Last Stand… Up, she’s been complaining about how she “got kicked out of show business for being mean.” She went with the whole “strong woman” defense, saying:
“I can be demanding and impatient and tough. I am a strong woman. I can be demanding and impatient and tough. I am a strong woman.”
Right, she was just leaning in, and that’s why an employee was fired after taking a leave of absence due to a suicide attempt. Just Ellen leaning in, being a girlboss.
Related: Jennifer Lopez CANCELS Summer Tour Amid Low Ticket Sales & Ben Affleck Drama!
Anyway, it appears far fewer folks want to hear her defense than she thought. Because several of her concerts were canceled abruptly overnight. Shows in Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle, and Chicago were just cut on the Ticketmaster site with no explanation. Along with a guarantee of a refund, ticket holders were told:
“Unfortunately, the Event Organizer has had to cancel your event.”
This definitely isn’t a scheduling issue either. The tour itself isn’t canceled, nor are the cities. Apart from Dallas, each city that was canceled — San Francisco, Seattle, and Chicago — originally had two nights of shows back to back. In each case, it was the second night that was cut. This tells us Ellen couldn’t sell enough tickets to fill these venues for two straight nights. She’s still coming to the city, but she’s finding it isn’t worth doing more than one night.
It should be noted these are theater engagements, not some kind of stadium tour. Ellen used to be the biggest thing on daytime TV, and now she can’t get two nights filled at the 2500-seat S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium. Really bad news for the comeback.
Could she still get that Netflix special she wants? Probably. After all, the streaming giant has shown they love a controversial comic who used to be on TV. In the world of streaming, hate-watches and rubbernecking count for the same number of views as fans. And those she can definitely still get…
[Image via The Ellen DeGeneres Show/YouTube.]
