Michelle Obama, Channing Tatum, And David Letterman Will Be Among The Guests Of Ellen DeGeneres’ Final Shows

Ellen DeGeneres is in the home stretch of her long-running talk show, which is surely good news to anyone who works on the Ellen show that currently has an open prescription for anxiety medication. And as such, Ellen’s got to start nailing down the guests for her final shows. But it won’t just be Ellen struggling to remain awake as she is forced to sit through her eight hundredth riveting visit from a Kardashian sister or grit her teeth as her staff brings out a giant chocolate cake with “FAREWELL” written across the top in bright blue buttercream (she specifically requested vanilla with pale blue, goddammit!). She’s got a line-up of guests that range from former First Ladies and late-night talk show icons to tennis GOATs and…Zac Efron? Okay.

Deadline reports that Ellen’s final show will air on Thursday, May 26th. That means Ellen’s got about ten weeks of shows to pump out and today, a batch of final guests was announced.

A few of the more than 4,000 guests on the show are slated to return for a final visit – and walk down memory lane – in the months leading to the finale, including former First Lady Michelle Obama, Jennifer Garner, Channing Tatum, Serena Williams, Zac Efron, Adam Levine, Behati Prinsloo, Gwen Stefani, David Letterman, Diane Keaton, Kim Kardashian, and DeGeneres’ wife, Portia de Rossi.

Following the finale, The Ellen DeGeneres Show will continue to run on affiliate stations throughout the summer with guest hosts, compilation shows and repeats.

Michelle Obama, wow – I can’t wait to see what kind of questions Ellen asks her. Things like, “What is it like to be so beloved by so many” and “Does W. ever ask about me?“. And if Channing Tatum doesn’t send Ellen off with a stripper routine set to NSYNCs “Bye Bye Bye,” then what’s the point? Don’t tell me they can’t get the rights to that song, we all know Ellen is the upper echelon of rich and can definitely afford anything in the NSYNC catalogue (yes, even No Strings Attached).

But what does Ellen have planned for her overworked and mistreated staff? Ellen’s parting gift to her staff is a bunch of bonuses, contingent on how long an employee was made to suffer – er, work at the show. Ellen’s celebration of her staff reportedly began with team gifts to celebrate the final season, which were gifted last fall. And now staffers are pulling in some extra money, courtesy of Ellen SoGenerous herself.

Behind the scenes, as the show is coming to an end, DeGeneres is handing out employees and crew members bonuses based on years of service, sources said. A significant portion of the Ellen staff are old-timers: 30% of show employees have worked there for over 10 years; many for 15, and a few, including most executive producers, for all 19 seasons.

On top of the bonuses, the production company behind Ellen, Warner Bros./Telepictures, has informed staff that their healthcare will be extended for six months after the end of the show, as well as a free one-year membership to Linkedin Learning and access to resume building and networking workshops. The healthcare extension is surely appreciated. Six months of post-Ellen $0 therapy is nothing to sneeze at. But the resume building? Unnecessary. All an employee has to do is type, “I worked for Ellen on the Ellen show” on their resume, and recruiters will come pouring in from all career sectors. Entertainment, business, stress management, hostage negotiation, personal assistant to high stakes secret espionage agent, the person who is able to keep cool while taking a soufflé out of the oven. If you can handle the stress of Ellen, you can handle anything.

Pic: YouTube