‘Ellen’ shares start date of final season

Ellen DeGeneres is getting ready to say goodbye.

The 19th and final season of “Ellen” will premiere on Sept. 13, the talk show announced Monday, initiating a monthslong farewell for the controversial TV host.

“With unparalleled celebrity interviews, musical performances, topical stories, extraordinary human interest guests, and sought-after viral sensations worldwide, DeGeneres will continue to deliver … hilarious experiences to viewers throughout her final season,” the show said in a statement.

DeGeneres, 63, announced in May that she’d be wrapping the show after the upcoming season. “You all have changed my life and I am forever grateful to all of you for watching, for laughing, for dancing … sometimes crying,” she said at the time. “This show has been the greatest experience of my life, and I owe it all to you.”

Despite the timing, DeGeneres claimed the outpouring of allegations from current and former employees of behind-the-scenes bullying, sexual harassment and mistreatment had nothing to do with her decision to leave.

Mostly anonymous sources told stories about racism and workplace intimidation, some by DeGeneres herself and most by her employees, all of whom reported to her. Producer Ed Glavin allegedly reprimanded an employee for asking for a raise. Other employees spoke of an on-set rule that nobody was allowed to look DeGeneres in the eye.

DeGeneres offered the first of several apologies in July 2020, writing a letter to her staff in which she took responsibility for everyone working under her name.

“As we’ve grown exponentially, I’ve not been able to stay on top of everything and relied on others to do their jobs as they knew I’d want them done. Clearly some didn’t,” she wrote in the letter, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “That will now change and I’m committed to ensuring this does not happen again.”

Three of the show’s top producers — Glavin, Kevin Leman and Jonathan Norman — were fired last August.

In May, DeGeneres implied a conspiracy, claiming the allegations were “too orchestrated” and “too coordinated.”

“I have to say, if nobody else is saying it, it was really interesting, because I’m a woman, and it did feel very misogynistic,” she said on “Today.”