Ellen DeGeneres addressed the allegations of her toxic work environment yesterday in the premiere episode of the 18th season of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. While the audience in front of her, featured on multiple screens in the audience seats of the studio, seems to accept the apology, that wasn't necessarily what people behind screens around the world took it.

The reporter who broke the exclusive story about Ellen, Krystie Yandoli, was on GMA after the apology aired and her reaction to it wasn't so warm. "I don't know if there would have been a perfect thing for Ellen to say after we spoke to 75 former and current employees with these kinds of allegations of misconduct," she said. "But if there was ever a time to take a more serious tone, this maybe would have be the time for that," she said addressing the way Ellen chose to weave in jokes during the apology monologue.  

Yandoli claimed that when speaking to some of her employees after the apology, they said that is "disingenuous." They did not appreciate the host making jokes in the midst of addressing their experiences, which were traumatizing for some. 

"Out of the gate she was making light of these allegations," said Entertainment Tonight Canada host Roz Weston in regards to Ellen opening up her monologue asking how everyone's summer was. "Those allegations are not that people were mean. These were racist, these were sexual harassment allegations. People got fired for them and I don't think you open your apology with a joke," he said. 

Many are scrutinizer the talkshow host for not saying enough during the monologue, and others criticizing the fact that she "didn't know" about much that was happening behind the scenes when she should have. 

"Months and months of speculation, wrapped up in a 7 minute monologue...never to be mentioned again...business as usual…." commented one user on a YouTube video.

"A little confused about this #Ellenapology she is saying that she should "take responsibility what happens at her show" but a lot of the toxicity was said to come directly from her so of course she is responsible for it #emptyapologies," tweeted one user yesterday. 

"They added fake audience laughter to her jokes during what’s supposed to be a public apology 🤦‍♂️," commented user Ryan Anthony on the YouTube video of the monologue.

"When making a genuine apology, jokes should be left aside. Make jokes after about an unrelated topic, but including jokes about eg “Jenga” makes the apology seem more disingenuous. Being a comedic talk show host obviously includes jokes, but this was a moment where the jokes should have been put on pause," commented user Ellie Ellie on the same video. The comment on jokes was common amongst viewers.