Los Angeles – How Ellen DeGeneres spent her summer vacation: accepting a bouquet of Daytime Emmys and agreeing to host this month’s prime-time Emmy ceremony.
Oh, and reconsidering her trademark dancing on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” That last item could send DeGeneres fans reeling. The comedian’s happy-feet boogie at the start of her syndicated talk show has turned into a big crowd pleaser.
“I love to dance and I know people love watching me dance. But at the same time it never was intended to be an everyday thing on the show,” she said. “What people talk about more than the show itself is the dance.”
The show’s third season starts Tuesday (3 p.m. on KUSA-Channel 9) with guests Alicia Keys and Ray Romano. If DeGeneres doesn’t seem as antic as usual, cut her some slack: She hails from New Orleans and the hurricane-ravaged city is much on her mind. Viewers can expect to see her weighing in with relief efforts.
Despite the disaster’s shock, DeGeneres has enjoyed a good run in the past year.
At 47, she revels in the freedom of being herself. She considers her Emmy awards welcome – the show earned five in May, including best host and its second consecutive best talk show honors – but not proof she’s on the right track.
“I think I let go of the need for approval,” DeGeneres said. “It certainly feels good when you get it, but I used to be more desperate for it. Once I felt better inside about myself … I could do everything based on how I want to do things.”
The romantic notion of a Hollywood comeback is overused but applies to DeGeneres, who seemed an unlikely candidate as daytime television’s newest sweetheart.
When her show from Warner Bros. Telepictures Productions was first pitched to TV station managers they viewed it with skepticism, she said. After all, consider her history: She came out as a lesbian while starring in a popular sitcom, lost that show when ratings fell and saw another comedy flop.
It seemed a formula for disaster to those who couldn’t look past her sexual orientation.
“Nobody thought I could do daytime and do well. Nobody thought that housewives would want to watch me. ‘Why would a housewife have anything in common with a gay woman?”‘ DeGeneres recalled hearing.
“The Ellen DeGeneres Show” has remained true to her brand of winsome observational humor, the sort in which toilet paper rolls that are hard to unravel or wildlife invading her garden become the stuff of shared recognition and laughs.
“She’s in the mold of Bill Cosby and Jerry Seinfeld,” said industry analyst Bill Carroll. “You can accept that Ellen could be like us.”
