The end of an era.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show will come to an after its upcoming nineteenth season, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Ellen DeGeneres reportedly informed her staff of the decision on Tuesday (May 11). She will discuss the end of her show publicly on Ellen during the May 13 show. She will be joined by fellow talk show host and longtime friend Oprah Winfrey.

“When you’re a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged – and as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it’s just not a challenge anymore,” DeGeneres told the outlet. Over the course of the show's run, the Hollywood Reporter estimates DeGeneres filmed over 3,000 shows, and conducted more than 2,400 celebrity interviews.

“Although all good things must come to an end, you still have hope that truly great things never will,” Warner Bros.’ Unscripted TV President Mike Darnell said in his own statement to the outlet. Darnell described DeGeneres' longrunning talk show as “an absolute phenomenon,” as well as “as the premiere destination for both superstars and incredible heartfelt human-interest stories.”

As for what's next for the prolific talk show host, DeGeneres says even she doesn't know the answer to that just yet. "I’ve been trying to think about that. I have some ideas but my agent is just like, 'Why don’t you just sit still for a minute. You probably don’t even know how exhausted you are and what it’s going to be like to sit still,'" she shared. "And I don’t know how long I’ll be able to do that because I’m like a Ferrari in neutral. I’m constantly needing to go. So, that’s my first challenge and then I’m going to figure it out. I wouldn’t have thought I was ever going to do a talk show when I stopped doing movies and sitcoms. I thought that that was the only path. And then all of a sudden there was a talk show that took me on this 19-year journey."

DeGeneres says she's "so proud" of the show, calling it "the best thing I’ve ever done in my life." Though she'll "miss everything" about it, she says she knows in her gut it's time to close the curtains. "I know it’s time to do something different."

Photo: Getty

Jeffrey T. Mason

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