Margaret Cho is accusing Ellen DeGeneres of being “not nice” to her for most of her career, despite them both working in comedy in their early days.
The actress and comedian made a recent appearance on The Kelly Mantle Show, where she claimed that DeGeneres would act like they had just met whenever she was a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
“Ellen was really weird and not nice to me for most of my career,” Cho said. “I opened for her in the 1980s, when she was a headliner in comedy clubs, way before her big fame. Later, when I would do her talk show in the 2000s, she acted like we just met.”
“And I’m like, ‘Bitch, what?’ That’s weird. We go way back. It’s so creepy and weird,” the Grammy and Emmy nominee joked.
Cho went on to recall one instance where David Bowie was a guest on DeGeneres’ daytime talk show, and the night before his appearance, Cho had attended his concert wearing a “Chinese emperor outfit,” as she described it. The comedian said she later learned that Bowie kept complimenting her concert look during his Ellen DeGeneres Show visit, but that his comments had been edited out of the broadcast.
“The producer, who’s a really good friend of mine, had to call me and tell me, ‘I can’t believe she did this, but she cut it out of the show,’” Cho recounted. “‘But you need to know that he was going on and on about your outfit. God said your name. He loves you.’”
While Cho said she wasn’t exactly sure why Bowie’s remarks on her outfit were cut from the show, and that it could have been due to time, she added that she’s still “going to take it personally.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to DeGeneres’ rep for comment.
In the years before The Ellen DeGeneres Show came to a close with season 19 in 2022, DeGeneres and her show were met with controversy, including personal digs and a BuzzFeed News exposé detailing allegations of a toxic workplace. The latter promoted an internal investigation by WarnerMedia and the dismissal of key executives.
DeGeneres, who said she learned about the toxic workplace claims through the press, opened the show’s 18th season with an apology, telling viewers at the time, “I learned that things happen here that never should have happened. I take that very seriously. And I want to say I am so sorry to the people who were affected.”
As for why she decided to end her daytime show after season 19, DeGeneres told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021, “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.”
Cho has also previously commented on The Ellen DeGeneres Show‘s toxic workplace allegations, saying on the Hot Takes & Deep Dives podcast in 2020, “I think she definitely is scary. I’m still scared of Ellen. Everyone should be scared of Ellen. I would have no idea what it would be like to work for that.”
