One of daytime TV’s most recognizable faces, Ellen Degeneres, has made the decision to end ‘The Ellen Show’ after the upcoming 19th season has finished. The decision, which ultimately fell to Degeneres herself, is supposedly several years in the making. “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” Degeneres told The Hollywood Reporter. 

The show runs for 180 shows a year which is a hectic in itself. All that energy was certainly valuable though as her journey will have taken her beyond 3,000 shows and 2,400 celebrity interviews across actors, musicians, athletes and everyone in between. Over the past 3 years in particular Degeneres has wrestled with the idea of ending the show. Her wife, Portia de Rossi, had been encouraging her to move on while her brother and other executives at Warner Bros urged the show to go on.

“Indeed, after an uphill battle to get the show off the ground — it was the hardest show we’ve ever had to launch in the history of our company,” a Warner Bros. exec said. NBCUniversal Local president Valari Staab describes Ellen as “an iconic American TV program” and its host as “a trailblazer and a one-of-a-kind talent.” DeGeneres, whose output has reportedly earned her $84 million in annual income, was the recipient of the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2015 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom under Barack Obama in 2016.

What’s your favorite Ellen memory?