The Ellen DeGeneres Show has already had a difficult 2020, with former employees describing the set as a “toxic” workplace back in July and setting off a chain of events that resulted in an internal investigation, more troubling accusations, major producers getting fired, and finally Ellen DeGeneres herself having to make a statement on the show. Today, though, things got worse in a different way, with DeGeneres revealing on Twitter that she has tested positive for COVID-19 and will be suspending production of her show.
DeGeneres tweeted that she’s “feeling fine right now” and is “following all proper CDC guidelines,” but her show won’t be coming back now until “after the holidays”—with Variety getting confirmation from the show’s production company that it will be on hiatus until January. Variety also notes that this is a particularly bad time for this to happen (not that there could possibly be a good time for someone to get COVID), since the Ellen show was just hitting some particularly high ratings thanks to the annual “12 Days Of Giveaways” series. Also, for the record, Ellen has been operating with a virtual audience since its current season started back in September, so DeGeneres at least hasn’t been dancing with regular people for these past few months.