Ellen Ending Daytime Talk Show

►Ellen DeGeneres is signing off. Daytime’s most recognizable face has decided her upcoming season, the show’s nineteenth, will be the last. The decision, which fell to DeGeneres, is said to have been several years in the making. She informed her staff May 11, and will sit down with longtime pal and daytime predecessor Oprah Winfrey to discuss the news on Ellen‘s May 13 show. DeGeneres spoke exclusively with THR's Lacey Rose about the decision:

--"When we did our 3,000th show, they showed that highlights montage and everybody was emotional. We all hugged and everyone had tears in their eyes, and Mike Darnell was here going, “You really want to [end this]?” Look, it’s going to be really hard on the last day, but I also know it’s time. I’m a creative person, and when you’re a creative person you constantly need to be challenged, which is why I decided to host the Oscars or why I decided to go back to stand up when I didn’t think I would. I just needed something to challenge me. And as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it’s just not a challenge anymore. I need something new to challenge me."

--As for the toxic workplace allegations : "My whole being is about making people happy. And with the talk show, all I cared about was spreading kindness and compassion and everything I stand for was being attacked. So, it destroyed me, honestly. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t. And it makes me really sad that there’s so much joy out there from negativity. It’s a culture now where there are just mean people, and it’s so foreign to me that people get joy out of that. Then, on the heels of it, there are allegations of a toxic workplace and, unfortunately, I learned that through the press. And at first I didn’t believe it because I know how happy everybody is here and how every guest talks about, “Man, you have a great place here. Of all the talk shows I’ve done, everyone here is so happy.” That’s all I’ve ever heard. The story and interview.

+In a Today show sit-down Thursday, DeGeneres reiterated, as she previously told THR, that she’s not stopping the show due to criticism of her personally and claims of a toxic workplace on the series that surfaced over the summer of 2020, the host did reveal that she “really did think about not coming back because it was devastating."

--When Guthrie asked if DeGeneres felt she was being “canceled,” the host mused that there was something off about the criticism. “I really didn’t understand it. I still don’t understand it. It was too orchestrated. It was too coordinated,” she said. More.

+NBC's This Is Us is also planning its end-date: Sources tell THR's Lesley Goldberg that the network is poised to announce on Friday that its time-jumping family tear-jerker from creator Dan Fogelman will close its run during the upcoming 2021-22 broadcast season.

--News that This Is Us will end after six seasons is hardly a surprise. When NBC in May 2019 renewed This Is Us for three additional seasons, sources told THR at the time that season six would likely be the last for the Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia and Sterling K. Brown starrer. Then-NBC brass, however, remained optimistic that the mega-hit could live on beyond that, though that no longer appears to be the case. The story.

Judy Sheindlin On (Not) Retiring and 'Judy Justice'

►Judy Sheindlin on ending Judge Judy, her new show and the legal system’s biggest flaw. After 25 years, television's highest-paid host — and The Hollywood Reporter's Unscripted TV Player of the Year — is walking away from the show that made her an icon, but she has no plans to put the gavel down anytime soon with Judy Justice in the works for IMDb TV.

--"The People’s Court, they’ve had several judges. The Tonight Show has had several hosts. But I Love Lucy only had one Lucille Ball. So, almost 20 years ago, I told the company that I worked for this: “I want to be more of a partner. Don’t treat me as a paid employee. I could make this show without you — I created a deal where I could do that — but you can’t make it without me. I can take Judy Sheindlin anywhere else. And good luck with you if you can find somebody else. Otherwise, let’s share the gift that this program has brought to both of us.” I don’t think that there’s anything unreasonable about that."

--"I’m not tired. I don’t play golf or tennis. I have no desire to learn how to play mahjong, chess or checkers. I know what I like to do. Why, at my stage in life, would I try to find something else when I already know what I like? And this isn’t a 9-to-5 job. I’ve still got the time to see the children I love, the grandchildren who are growing up very fast and the cute mate who I still get a kick out of." The interview.

In TV News...

►NBC is getting back into the live musical business. The network has ordered Annie Live to air during the holiday season this year. It will be the first live musical for the network since Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert in 2018. Former NBC Entertainment chief Bob Greenblatt and Neil Meron will executive produce. More.

+Adult Swim has ordered three movies based on previously canceled, fan-favorite animated series. Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Metalocalypse andThe Venture Bros. are all getting new films. Each will be released globally on Blu-ray/DVD and On Demand for a 90-day exclusive window, followed by premieres on HBO Max and Adult Swim. The story.

+Ziwe isn’t sure about Cancel Culture: “I see it as a bad press day." The late night writer and Instagram Live provocateur keeps up her fearless approach to such topics as wealth hoarding, beauty standards and immigration in her new Showtime variety show. The interview.

+HBO Max is adding another comedy to its roster. The streamer has handed out a series order to half-hour scripted entry Gordita Chronicles. The comedy, which was first put into the WarnerMedia-backed platform’s development pipeline in February 2020, revolves around a 12-year-old Dominican girl who struggles to fit into hedonistic 1980s Miami as her family pursues the American dream. More.

+NBCUniversal’s high-profile Joe Exotic drama starring Kate McKinnon is no longer headed for broadcast television. After announcing that the series based on the Wondery podcast of the same name would air across NBC, USA Network and Peacock, the media company’s new streaming and TV regime has decided that the content of the limited series would be best suited for its streamer. The story.

+Also: Peacock is bolstering its unscripted roster with series featuring Paris Hilton and JoJo Siwa, along with importing a hybrid show called True Story, which was originally developed for NBC. More.

+Meanwhile: The Banker’s Wife is the latest series to be a casualty of the pandemic. Amazon has scrapped the series from Homeland‘s Meredith Stiehm and Lesli Linka Glatter, with sources noting the international scope of the drama made it a challenging series to produce even as the world begins to open back up again amid the ongoing pandemic. More.

►Roku will officially enter the original programming space on Streaming Day. The streaming device maker will officially bow 30 of its rebranded Quibi originals on May 20. All 30 series, including Die Hart, Free Rayshawn and Reno 911, previously aired last year on Quibi, the now-defunct shortform streaming platform. More.

►Janelle Monae is the latest A-lister to be enlisted for the Knives Out sequel . She is in talks to join what will be a starry ensemble for the Rian Johnson-directed whodunit, which has Edward Norton and Dave Bautista circling roles. The original Knives Out starred Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Plummer, Michael Shannon, and Toni Collette. More.

+Also: Robert De Niro will play the titular dad in the Lionsgate comedy About My Father, the feature film vehicle for popular comic Sebastian Maniscalco. More.

►Spanish-language TV upfronts: NBCUniversal's Telemundo is pitching itself as the only place to get the "full spectrum" of Hispanic audiences... Univision is "in the middle of an interesting transformation," as it prepares to merge with Televisa and embrace streaming...

►TV reviews: Inkoo Kang reviews HBO Max's Hacks, writing that "There’s a schematic quality to the series’ foundation that Hacks mostly fails to outgrow in the first six of its 10 episodes. Deborah and Ava’s boomer-versus-millennial, heartland-versus-the-coasts, experience-versus-innovation tensions are constantly telegraphed without becoming organic to the characters." The review.

+Daniel Fienberg reviews FX's Pride, writing that the series "has been made with a scholar’s eye toward intersectionality and marginalized figures within already marginalized communities. I find that to be remarkable and entirely admirable, even if the series itself is very much, almost by design, hit-and-miss." The review.

In other news...

--Funny or Die has a new owner. Designer, philanthropist and former Democratic National Committee finance chair Henry R. Muñoz III has acquired the digital comedy studio and branded content maker. The deal includes FOD’s library, social media assets and longform slate.

--Comcast-owned European pay TV giant Sky has named Cécile Frot-Coutaz, former CEO of Fremantle and currently head of YouTube in Europe, the CEO of its production arm Sky Studios, starting in September.

--Fox News is shaking up its weekend lineup. The conservative-leaning cable news channel is giving former congressman Trey Gowdy and radio host Dan Bongino weekend programs, starting in June. Gowdy will host an hour-long program on Sundays at 7 p.m., with Bongino hosting a show Saturdays at 10 p.m.

--Amid the growth of streaming, pay TV giant Comcast is striking shorter-term carriage fee deals with TV network companies and making sure the prices paid in them take into account the content partners’ streaming strategies, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said on Wednesday.

--Universal Pictures has apologized for using a male actor to dub the performance of trans actor Laverne Cox in the Italian-language version of Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman.

--The English Premier League has agreed to roll over its existing £5 billion ($7 billion) rights deal with Comcast’s Sky, telecom giant BT and Amazon from 2022 to 2025.

--As a presenting partner for The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Women in Entertainment Breakfast, Lifetime has joined with THR for the evolution of the event. Lifetime will air a broadcast special titled Lifetime and The Hollywood Reporter Present Women in Entertainment: The Next Generation, a Voices Magnified program celebrating female trendsetters, industry leaders and potential future female power players.

--Gal Gadot waded into the topic of the current wave of Israel-Palestine violence and, not surprisingly, is receiving some backlash online.

--Chrissy Teigen has publicly apologized to Courtney Stodden after being accused of bullying them in their teens, including telling Stodden to take their own life.

What else we're reading...

--"LeVar Burton, Drew Barrymore among celebrity guest hosts for CBS This Morning" [L.A. Times]

--"Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast is going exclusive to Spotify" [The Verge]

--"The new CNN is more opinionated and emotional. Can it still be ‘the most trusted name in news’?" [Washington Post]

--"Dentsu creates unit to boost diversity in media" [WSJ]

Today's birthdays: Stevie Wonder, 71, Dennis Rodman, 60, Harvey Keitel, 82, Pusha T, 44, Robert Pattinson, 35.