All eyes will be on the ratings tomorrow morning for tonight’s (Thursday’s) rerun on NBC of “Ellen’s Game of Games” show. It airs at 9pm.
This is the first referendum Ellen DeGeneres will face since the scandal of “toxic behavior” broke on her syndicated daily “Ellen Show.”
“The Ellen Show” has been reruns for most of July so its low ratings aren’t really important. If that show returns with new episodes on September 9th, believe me, those numbers will be scrutinized like never before.
But tonight’s “Game of Game Shows” is the first since May 12th. And even though it’s a rerun, this is the first time NBC can measure what if any damage has been done to DeGeneres regarding their investment in her.
The same producers accused of much malfeasance on the syndicated show produce this one, as well. The “Game of Game Shows” is a spin off of the talk show.
Tonight’s guest is singer Usher, who so far hasn’t said a word in DeGeneres’s defense. Some celebrities have, including Jay Leno, Ashton Kutcher, manager Scooter Braun, and singer Katy Perry.
But the reports of mental abuse, harassment and majpr unpleasantness backstage at “The Ellen Show” have been far reaching. They included complaints from TV stars Brad Garrett and Lea Thompson, as well as dozens of former employees.
The ratings for the May 12th “Game of Game Shows” were down from the previous week by 2.06%. The previous week’s ratings were down by 5.57%. The whole month of April showed the ratings sliding, one week by as much as 15%. Word was just starting to seep out then that there was trouble in the world of the talk show host. On March 24th the show had reached a season high of 6.2 million viewers. By May 13th, they were down to 3.9 million. Ouch!
