Ellen Degeneres an American Icon

Since the debut of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Ellen's popularity has skyrocketed. Her talk show generates audiences of 1.4 million viewers a day, and has been buoyed by the buzz of success, enabling it to book superstars like Tom Cruise, Britney Spears, and Elton John (the fact that Ellen is almost universally liked in Hollywood helps, too). NBC Television Stations president Jay Ireland said in a statement, “Her dynamic personality, wonderful sense of humor and ability to connect with the audience is the key to her success. The series is not only bringing more viewers to our stations, but has great demographics.”

Ellen seems to be on top of the world now—she has a successful talk show, and she has a successful long-term relationship with girlfriend Alexandra Hedison, a photographer. Considering how far she was pulled down after coming out to the nation, it's a miracle that Ellen DeGeneres has survived and is still making people laugh. (Collins 1-3)

Despite these laudable successes, some gay and lesbian viewers have criticized Ellen for not being gay enough on her new talk show. Ellen told Out Magazine this month, “I don't understand what people would want me to do—the people who say I'm not gay enough. Gay people, we just eat our own. We do not support one another nearly enough. It's really a shame.”

Watching The Ellen DeGeneres Show, it's clear that Ellen has learned from the experiences in her past. Talking to The Advocate in 2001, she noted, “I know that the baggage that I have now is because everyone thought I got so political.” Having been seriously burned by the media and the public for coming out, it's understandable that she wants to avoid feeling that way again. She wants to go back to what made her successful in the first place: comedy that is friendly and quirky, and is not about being gay.

This doesn't mean that she avoids the topic at all times on her talk show; she often makes jokes that are only funny because the audience knows that she is gay (like, telling Justin Timberlake that she was "just as disgusted as he was about the Britney-Madonna kiss at last year's VMA's, or introducuing Sex and the City's Jason Lewis last week as "an attractive man, if you like that sort of thing"). She has also had openly gay guests on her show, such as Elton ...