Social Media Monitoring Project: Part 1
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
It’s quite likely that anyone with access to a TV or the internet knows Ellen DeGeneres. The eponymous show has been running on ABC networks since 2003, catapulting Ellen into one of Hollywood’s biggest names. Her daytime talk show has garnered 171 Daytime Emmy Award nominations and has won 61 daytime Emmy awards as of 2020, making it a highly viewed and successful daytime show. Since its inception, Ellen has served as a model for positivity and spreading kindness - she even closes every show by telling her audience to “be kind to one another”. However, her charming schtick of uplifting laughs and compassion to escape from the real world may have been masking a polar opposite persona that left many of her fans in disbelief. Recent scandals surrounding the star and her production team have proven that no matter how successful, famous and kind you may or may not be, you are not immune to cancel culture.
Ellen, aka television’s Queen of Nice and her production staff, have been under intense scrutiny and criticism this past summer in light of allegations of a toxic workplace at her production, The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Buzzfeed spoke out about the “allegations of a toxic culture” marked by racism and an overall miserable and abusive workplace, allegedly stemming from DeGeneres’s behavior. In addition, sexual assault claims against her staffers have been reported, resulting in their firing from the show.
These claims brought to light by former employees sparked an immediate and swift online backlash against DeGeneres, with anecdotes and stories from multiple people recounting negative encounters with Ellen herself as well as with other staffers high in the ranks of the show. People have been actively discussing and sharing stories of DeGeneres acting callously to fans, entertainment professionals and service workers, asserting that Ellen has “a mean streak that all of Hollywood knows about”. A story of Ellen firing an intern on her first day over an error made with a golf cart has been posted online. Her crew comments how “It’s Ellen’s way or the highway- and she insisted this intern be fired immediately”.
Ellen and her team have always had a very active presence on all social media sites, such as Facebook, twitter, instagram and youtube. She's amassed 79.5 million twitter followers, 52.3 million followers on Instagram, and 24.5 million subscribers on Youtube. She is known for capitalizing on the neat and most current trends, such as photoshopping herself on a photo going viral or putting herself in the newest Justin Bieber video. Her instagram has a variety of content that extends beyond her show, such as comedic material that relates to everyday news and current memes/trends.
Ellen posts all of her interviews on her Youtube and her facebook page, and she also capitalizes on “clickbait culture” by having the viral clickbait right on her show. By doing this, she attaches her name to internet hype that in turn increases her ratings whenever the Internet is obsessed with something new.
The Ellen show also has their own social media platform, called “The Ellen Network”, which includes the popular video site, “Ellentube,” that expands upon the content they upload to youtube. Fans are able to upload their own content in hopes of earning a guest appearance on the show. This is an easy way for Ellen and her team to be directly reached by fans and to interact with their submissions. This simple uploading process gives all of us in the groundswell an equal opportunity to receive attention from the show.
What are People saying about Ellen and her show?
Before the allegations surfaced, people weren’t discussing Ellen's brand in a negative way. The media was mostly praising her positive energy and acts of kindness, especially in comparison to the constant negative news cycle that exists today. Most of the time, clips people discussed or shared from the Ellen show included happy or emotional moments that fans enjoyed. Ellen’s entire brand is based on her kind and compassionate persona, so people were usually talking about Ellen in a positive manner.
Although Ellen herself was not posting anything regarding the allegations, people certainly weren’t shying away from conveying their own feelings towards Ellen and fellow staffers. Ellen was frequently trending on twitter as countless users were reacting to and responding to stories of people who suffered at the hands of Ellen or her team. Like most newsworthy stories, the Ellen situation became its own meme and punchline, taking over TikTok and Twitter. Even before these alarming stories and encounters broke in the summer, people were discussing their discontent with DeGeneres online.
In particular, there was a twitter thread where users were sharing stories describing Ellen as being “one of the meanest people alive”, which received more than 2,000 replies from people describing their own personal and uncomfortable experiences with the host.
Trends and Analytics
From looking at Google Trends, we see that The Ellen DeGeneres Show had a rapid growth in popularity in early August as the allegations and news about her show reached the internet. There is a large decrease in interest as we go into the fall.
This can be compared with another talk show that is on around the same time as Ellen,
The Talk on CBS. We see it’s evident that during the peak of the Ellen news, her show was significantly higher in trends than The Talk, yet they become much closer as the weeks go on and the story wanes a bit in the press.
Based on the Social Mention data above, the Ellen DeGeneres Show has a strength of 4%, which is far lower than I presumed. It seemed that everyone was talking and joking about Ellen and her show a few months back, yet now the conversation has seemed to dull. It seems that discussion over the toxic nature of her show has subsided after her season premiere a few weeks ago.
The sentiment is a 1:1 ratio, which are positive ratios relative to negative ratios. I thought the negatives would be slightly higher here, but perhaps her apology given at the start of her premiere won over those negative voices and people are slowly forgetting the negative stories that took place at the Ellen headquarters. It's slightly confusing as to why Ziegler is the top keyword, as Maddie Ziegler has not appeared on the Ellen show since 2015. I expected the top searched keywords to be something like “toxic or allegations”.
It’s also interesting to look at her current ratings. The show’s ratings have plummeted with a 38% decrease from last year, implying that the stir of a toxic workplace has decreased her fan support.
Target Audience:
The Ellen Show definitely has a wide target audience, but it seems to be most followed by women in the 25-60 age range. However, even though the majority of the show’s watchers and fans are women, it’s definitely an inclusive show for everyone. There’s nothing about the show that makes it solely for women or an inherently feminine show. You could argue that because it is a daytime show, it is directed at women because women are more likely in the US to be stay at home parents, so women are then more likely to tune in at 3pm everyday. Also, with her brand’s social media expertise, Ellen has definitely captured the attention of Gen Z. So, in terms of age groups, the show is catered towards a wide range that encapsulates young teens through adults.
SWOT Analysis:
Strengths: Ellen is extremely active on all forms of social media and is maintaining a huge online presence. Her staff makes sure she is up to date on all current trends to keep her relevant. She seems to have a devoted fan base and to connect to a lot of people, which is furthered by her active presence online.
Weaknesses: Her current season’s ratings are down, most likely due to the toxic workplace controversy. The show might have lost a decent amount of its fanbase. It’s hard enough to have to compete with all the other day time talk shows and hosts, but the addition of this scandal can’t be good for any brand.
Opportunities: Ellen should work harder to create a healthier environment that treats everyone with respect. Obviously, she is on the path towards achieving this, but maybe if her staffers and team updated the public once in a while to let everyone know that things are actually changing behind the scenes, people would become more receptive to her. Also, because racism and sexual assault were part of the allegations placed on Ellen and her brand, she could potentially discuss these topics at greater detail in order to express how she is dedicated to stopping them and making sure her workplace is free of this kind of discrimination.
Threats: Her ratings could keep on decreasing, not allowing for any kind of comeback after the scandal. Some people may just be unwilling to forgive her, and feel as if she’s just another member of the hollywood elite that lacks common courtesy. Her brand may never be able to fully recover from this, but it currently seems like she is surviving and maintaining her relevancy.
Hi, I like your post, I didn't really watch her talk show before, but After reading your blog, you make me feel I want to know sth about this program. Thank you! so, I went to see some issues and learned some news about Ellen. What I like about your post is that I think in the social media age, past business marketing, such as character setting (for example, when public figures are facing the public, marketing companies have designed a set of the best people for them), should have some modest adjustments.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, we have to admit, no matter what happening recently, we still see some faithful audience are there, therefore i think the show is in the future need to think about Ellen, what kind of character image appeared should Ellen to be in front of audience. Also, Ellen needs social media to help her to tell people, same as what she used to do with social media, what her real attitude of those things token place in her company. I think better to be honest to talk to people and make a talk show discuss about what happened as well.
Secondly, I have seen that all the current charges against her are basically based on her behavior towards the company's employees during the epidemic, such as: no salary, no benefits, etc. I wonder if she really knows how to run a company, as someone who stays on stage all the year round. I think it can be analyzed in combination with the business models of other similarly successful Talk Show companies.
Finally, I hope she can find a new way to continue doing what she likes and is good at as soon as possible.