Ellen DeGeneres

Election Day won’t just be a ratings boon for news programming; several syndicators are taking advantage of the occasion to provide a launching pad for their November sweeps fare. CBS Television Distribution’s “The Oprah Winfrey Show” is holding a two-day live event Tuesday and Wednes...

TiVo, which threatened to wreck the ad-supported television business by making it easier for viewers to skip through the commercials that pay for programming, has made a deal with Amazon.com to allow viewers to buy products they see on TV using their remote control. TiVo said the new home-...

She’s a talk show phenom, a groundbreaking sitcom star and, yes, an awards show host. Since she co-hosted the 1995 Genesis Awards with Ed Asner, Ellen DeGeneres has carved out a niche as a popular host for awards shows as diverse as the VH1 Fashion Awards and the Grammys and as prestigious as...

When Ellen DeGeneres’ sitcom “Ellen” first aired on March 30, 1994, no one—not even Ms. DeGeneres—had any idea that it would change the American cultural landscape. The early days of “Ellen,” originally titled “These Friends of Mine,” were modest. In the show’s often amorphous plots, 30-...

She has achieved a measure of fame reserved for a select few: She’s known to millions simply by her first name. From her scrappy beginnings as a standup comic to her acclaimed work as host of her syndicated daytime talk show, Ellen DeGeneres has far exceeded her own expectations in show busi...

1977 After one semester at the University of New Orleans, where she was majoring in communications, Ellen DeGeneres drops out. She gets a string of “regular” jobs (clerk, retail salesperson, hostess and house painter) before realizing she wants to be her own boss. She decides to try her sk...