Ellen DeGeneres: Staff 'told not to be afraid', offered extra paid holiday if they return to work

Ellen Show staff have been reportedly offered extra paid holiday and various other new perks. Photo / Getty Images

Ellen DeGeneres has reportedly offered her TV show staff extra paid holiday if they return to work, and told "not to be afraid".

The offer comes after she addressed the rumours that she dislikes eye contact in a apology video to her staff.

In a staff Zoom meeting, the 62-year-old host said she didn't know where the "insane" no eye contact policy came from, according to Page Six.

"I don't know where it started," DeGeneres reportedly said.

"Please talk to me. Look me in the eye ... It's crazy, just not true, I don't know how it started. [It's] not who I am."

According to Variety, she was "emotional" as she addressed the team.

Sources told Deadline that DeGeneres admitted that she was a personal person who is introverted and needs her own space, which may have led to staffers believing she wasn't nice.

"Does that mean I'm perfect? No, I'm not," DeGeneres reportedly said.

"I'm a multi-layered person, and I try to be the best person I can be and try to learn from my mistakes."

Sources also claimed to the Hollywood Reporter that the host vowed to interact with her staff more often, and apologised for overlooking the problems that have occurred on the show.

"I care about each and every one of you," DeGeneres reportedly said.

"I am grateful for each and every one of you. I feel like I've kind of let the ball drop a bit because I'm focused on the show, I go in and I do the show, and I've just let everybody do their jobs – to run different departments.

"And it just became a well-oiled machine, and I think that is the problem. It's not a machine. This is people. These are human beings that are working hard every single day to put this together. This show would not be what it is without all of you."

A former producer of the Today show in July revealed DeGeneres' staff's "bizarre" demands when she made an appearance on the show back in 2013.

"'She'll come in, she'll sit down, she'll talk to [host] Richard [Wilkins] and then Ellen will leave,'" Neil Breen recalled her staff telling him. "And I sort of said, 'I can't look at her?' I found the whole thing bizarre."

WarnerMedia is reportedly nearing the end of its investigation into The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Three of the show's top producers, executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman, have been axed from the programme after staff members accused them of a toxic work environment and sexual misconduct.

Instead, DeGeneres' in-house DJ, Stephen "tWitch" Boss, who recently said there's "been love" on set, has been named co-executive producer, Deadline reported.

Leman's attorney, Michael Plonsker, said in a statement about the staffing changes: "The fact that a deeply flawed BuzzFeed article has led to the termination of an innocent man – a popular figure and a creative force behind the Ellen show and a string of other projects produced with Ellen – is shocking. Kevin is devastated by being scapegoated and is not yet ready to comment."