Ellen DeGeneres Tells Graham Norton: 'I Really Miss Being on TV'
Four years after her daytime brand collapsed, Ellen showed up on the BBC hinting at a UK comeback. The audience gave her a warm welcome. Her former sponsors have stayed quiet.
Make It So ↓
Ellen DeGeneres walked onto The Graham Norton Show on October 16, 2026, her first significant television appearance since her daytime talk show ended in May 2022. She told the audience she had been thinking about doing British television. "I've nothing really going on," she said, "and I really miss being on TV."
She expanded: she misses laughing with writers and with audiences. She floated the idea of a lawn-mowing show. She suggested UK formats seem "pretty easy," citing Gogglebox and competitive baking. None of this was an announcement. It was a test transmission.
The Geography of a Safe Comeback
DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi relocated to England in 2024. The move itself was the first hint that the US media market was not where she planned to restart. Ground News noted the UK interest as a deliberate softening of re-entry: a market where the toxic-workplace scandal landed differently, where her name still carries warmth, and where the BBC carries different advertiser pressure than a US syndication deal.
The 2020 scandal that ended her show's run involved reports of a hostile work environment from dozens of production staff. Three executive producers left. The show continued for two more seasons under new management, but the audience relationship never fully recovered. When the finale aired, the show had shed roughly a third of its peak viewers.
Where Her Brands Went
The advertising math of the Ellen brand was substantial: at peak she held deals with American Express, CoverGirl, JCPenney, and others. Those deals ended during or after the scandal period. Entertainment Now reports no new sponsorship deals have been announced alongside her BBC appearance.
This is the clearest signal in the Graham Norton moment. Audiences will show up for a Graham Norton guest segment with almost any celebrity willing to be charming for twelve minutes. That is not the same signal as a brand writing a seven-figure endorsement check. One is curiosity. The other is conviction.
What a UK Show Would Actually Test
PinkNews covered the Graham Norton appearance as a tentative step toward a format pitch. The actual test, if she goes forward, is not whether British viewers like Ellen DeGeneres. They probably do. The test is whether UK advertisers are willing to attach their names to a celebrity whose most recent brand story is about what happened to her last show.
The US playbook for celebrity rehabilitation tends to run through memoir, then a streaming documentary, then a limited series. DeGeneres skipped straight to hinting at a live format in a foreign market. That is either very confident or very impatient. Probably both.
Ad Watch News is an independent commentary site. We have no affiliation with Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi, the BBC, Graham Norton, or any brand mentioned in this article. This piece draws on published sources listed below.
Sources & further reading
- ARY News: Ellen DeGeneres teases UK TV return, "I have nothing really going on" (Oct 2026)
- PinkNews: Ellen DeGeneres says she "really misses being on TV" at Graham Norton Show (Oct 16, 2026)
- Entertainment Now: Ellen DeGeneres Pondering Return to Television (Oct 2026)
- Ground News: Ellen DeGeneres Hints at Return to TV in UK (Oct 2026)
- Wikimedia Commons: Ellen DeGeneres 2011, Glenn Francis, CC BY-SA 4.0
