The fall of Ellen DeGeneres was, considering her immense popularity, pretty damn dramatic. Despite years of anecdotal evidence (and that unsettling George W. Bush incident), DeGeneres’ “cancellation” only started snowballing after a series of bombshells, alleging an incredibly toxic workplace environment, combined with a nasty attitude from DeGeneres herself, heavily contrasting with her public persona. Today, DeGeneres returned to face the cameras, and delivered, essentially, the same public apology that every other celebrity does in times of trouble. The overused combo of “power” and “privilege” were mentioned, the deeply unpleasant details of the allegations were skillfully skirted around, and DeGeneres declared herself to be a sincerely nice person, and definitely not putting on a friendly face for the cameras, no siree. The apology quickly shifted from dull, to surreal, as the camera turned to face a horrifying digital audience, composed entirely of giant screens, with rapid Ellen-fans shrieking into their smartphone cameras and computers. Black Mirror couldn’t top this inadvertent self-satire, an almost too on-the-nose visual metaphor for the hollow artificiality of the talk show circuit. But if DeGeneres truly has managed to clean out her workplace, to halt the repulsive abuses of power allegedly taking place behind the scenes, then who really cares how nice she is, in person? There are, clearly, more important things going on in the world right now. Not to mention, there isn’t a single talk show host out there who doesn’t reek of insincerity - authenticity is not the point of these shows, which effectively function as mildly entertaining marketing tools. Indeed, there was a point where the backlash became a bit absurd; the highlight being when DeGeneres was accused of “fat-shaming” a child, back in the seventies. That’s not to discount the severity of the allegations against DeGeneres and her staff; there’s some truly dreadful details in those reports, the nature of which have become, depressingly, an all-too-familiar story when it comes to the entertainment industry. Time will tell if DeGeneres truly is “cancelled,” or merely inconvenienced. There’s only one question when it comes to cancelation - is the celebrity in question still able to generate profit, or not? That’s up to DeGeneres’ audience, not Twitter.