Is Ellen DeGeneres dying of COVID? Her show is still on hiatus

In mid-December Ellen DeGeneres broke the news on Instagram she had contracted COVID-19. After a year of controversy, accusations of being a horrible boss & a terrible person in general, and sinking TV ratings, it was just another item on the list of bad things that happened in DeGeneres’s 2020.

Over the summer DeGeneres recorded episodes of The Ellen DeGeneres Show from her living room, but in September she returned to her cold-colored palm tree-lined set. However, with the announcement she was COVID-19 positive production halted altogether. As of December 10th, the show was no longer recording new episodes.

The plan was for production to pick back up on January 4th, but now employees of The Ellen DeGeneres Show have been notified this won’t be happening. Here’s what’s going on.

Continued delay

The crew for The Ellen DeGeneres Show received news that on the week of January 4 they should not come into the studio because new episodes would not be filmed. Instead employees were asked to work from home.

The reason was cited as being due to a current surge of COVID-19 cases in the southern California area. Staff were assured they’d still be paid for the week and that next week a testing schedule would be put into place – implying production will resume on the 11th.

Why the delay?

The further delay in new episodes of The Ellen DeGeneres Show comes after California governor Gavin Newsom suggested that studios consider putting productions on hold as the pandemic numbers continue to worsen.

Over the past week the state of California has seen a 24% rise in coronavirus-related deaths, which is approximately 251 deaths per day. As of December, over 32,000 cases were reported in the Golden State and hospitals in the state are so overwhelmed that even the gift shops are being used to see patients.

How’s Ellen DeGeneres doing?

Of course, the reason DeGeneres stopped filming in the first place is because she herself had been infected with COVID-19. In her announcement on Instagram she stated she was feeling fine, however a day later she posted a picture of herself in pajamas while lying on the floor with her dog. The image was captioned “Thank you for all of your sweet messages. They’re helping a lot. Wally is helping too.”

DeGeneres didn’t look as if she was feeling in tip-top shape, and her vague caption sounded like an implication that she was experiencing at least a couple of symptoms. Many of her fans were worried by the picture and continued to wish her a speedy recovery.

As of December 16th, DeGeneres posted a video of herself at home to provide news on her condition and to thank fans for wishing her well. DeGeneres said in the video that she’s feeling much better. The comedian also lamented the fact that, apparently, a side effect of COVID-19 can be “excruciating back pain”. For a brief moment, she seems lost in thought contemplating the pain she experienced.

DeGeneres ended the Instagram video by playing a quick game of Connect 4 with what viewers can only assume is her wife, though Portia de Rossi is never seen on screen.

Conclusion

It appears Ellen DeGeneres is doing just fine and, barring any unforeseen events, should be returning to production for The Ellen DeGeneres Show next week.

Her ratings will likely continue to follow their new lower trajectory, but both DeGeneres and her talk show should be airing on NBC (without reruns) soon enough.