Ellen DeGeneres's appearance on The Graham Norton Show drew audience interest despite having no forthcoming project to publicise. Her self-titled talk show was cancelled in 2022 — a period that had also seen members of staff raise concerns about the atmosphere on set — and marked the point at which she withdrew from public-facing work.
Her appearance on The Graham Norton Show — a talk programme where celebrities routinely appear to publicise new work — came at a point when DeGeneres had been keeping a lower public profile. Pressed by Norton on what had brought her to the show, DeGeneres replied that there was nothing new to plug, explaining that her motivation was simply a wish to be back on television.
Returning to the topic later in the programme, she described what she had found herself missing — the daily laughter shared with the writing team, the parade of guests, the chance to kiss Colin Farrell, and more besides.
DeGeneres also looked back on her self-titled sitcom — a five-season run stretching from 1994 through 1998 — in which she played the lead character, a role that placed her among the first openly gay protagonists at the centre of a widely broadcast international sitcom.
Beyond the broadcast itself, the appearance prompted a wave of online discussion, with viewers posting reactions that included questions about why DeGeneres had been invited onto the programme. A post on X directed at Graham Norton noted that hosts are under no obligation to accept an invitation from DeGeneres. One viewer posed the question of whether DeGeneres had paid for her spot on the programme, while another online comment noted that she had not joined the other guests — Quentin Tarantino, Colin Farrell, and Gemma Chan — in clapping. Responses to her on-screen presence ranged from measured observations about her manner to one viewer describing her as a "fun sponge."
In 2024, DeGeneres and her spouse Portia de Rossi relocated to the United Kingdom, a move that came after Donald Trump won back the presidency. A Cotswolds property valued at £18 million sustained flood damage attributed to Storm Bert in the period following the couple's move there.
The relocation came approximately two years after her US talk show was removed from its broadcast schedule. Viewership had been on a downward trajectory, and the talk show fronted by DeGeneres concluded in 2022 after a run spanning 19 seasons.
The Graham Norton Show airs on BBC One each Friday evening, with the programme beginning at 10.35pm.
