Three senior producers ― executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman ― have been ousted from the Warner Bros.-distributed syndicated strip following damning allegations raised in recent reports by Buzzfeed and Variety. Variety reports that senior producers Kevin Leman and Ed Glavin, and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman, are all done at Ellen. Another former staff member alleged that co-executive producer Jonathan Norman groomed him and attempted to perform oral sex on him. Three of the top producers on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" have left as WarnerMedia continues its investigation into the alleged toxic workplace.. A Warner Bros. spokesperson confirmed to Insider that three producers — Ed Glavin, Kevin Leman, and Jonathan Norman — had parted ways with the show. “I have always aimed to treat everyone on the staff with kindness, inclusivity and respect. In a statement Thursday night, Norman told BuzzFeed he is “100% categorically denying these allegations.”. Ellen DeGeneres attends the premiere of Netflix's "Green Eggs and Ham" at the Hollywood American Legion Post 43 on Sunday, November 3, 2019 in Los Angeles.
According to the THR report Thursday, Glavin’s days at the show are now numbered. Producers Jonathan Norman, Andy Lassner, Kevin Leman, Ed Glavin and Mary Connelly pose with the award for Outstanding Talk Show Entertainment for "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in the press room during The 42nd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards at Warner Bros. Studios on April 26, 2015 in Burbank, California. In the salacious allegations about the producers, one ex-employee reportedly said Leman asked if he could manually pleasure him or perform oral sex in a bathroom at a company party in 2013, according to BuzzFeed. Producers Jonathan Norman, Andy Lassner, Kevin Leman, Ed Glavin and Mary Connelly pose with the award for Outstanding Talk Show Entertainment for "The Ellen … Five employees reportedly said Glavin also used a button at his desk to remotely shut his office door “as an intimidation tactic” during reprimands. “I have never done anything to harm another staff member.
Forty-seven former employees reportedly told BuzzFeed that Glavin led with intimidation and fear on a daily basis. After all the tweets and first-hand accounts of Ellen’s alleged bad behavior came out at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, BuzzFeed decided to dig a little deeper.
Ellen DeGeneres, winner of the Carol Burnett Award, poses in the press room during the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 05, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California. Five former employees reportedly told BuzzFeed that Glavin touched them inappropriately in ways that included rubbing their shoulders and back or placing his hand around their lower waist. “I have never had a single complaint against me in my career. Norman … “Everyone acted really differently around her,” one former employee told the outlet. The accusations against head writer Kevin Leman, executive producer Ed Glavin and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman were published late Thursday in a BuzzFeed News exposé reportedly based on interviews with dozens of former “Ellen” employees. Ellen DeGeneres reportedly announced the firings of executive producers Ed Glavin, Kevin Leman and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman in a video conference call with the show's staff. “I started at the Ellen Show as a PA more than 17 years ago and have devoted my career to work my way to the position I now hold.
In my whole time on the show, to my knowledge, I’ve never had a single HR or inter-personal complaint made about me, and I am devastated beyond belief that this kind of malicious and misleading article could be published,” he said. Catch up on the day’s top five stories every weekday afternoon. Ever. While my job as head writer is to come up with jokes — and, during that process, we can occasionally push the envelope — I’m horrified that some of my attempts at humor may have caused offense,” he told BuzzFeed. “And some of us were sexually harassed and that’s what was shaping our careers our first year out of school,” he said. “(Glavin) had a reputation for being handsy with women,” one reportedly said. According to Variety, executive producers Ed Glavin and Kevin Leman and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman, have been booted as news was delivered to the program's employees via a videoconference call on Monday. The report led to an internal company investigation by Telepictures parent WarnerMedia, THR reported. “He’d probably do it in front of 10 people and they’d laugh because ‘it’s just Kevin being Kevin,’ but if you’re in a position of power at a company, you don’t just get to touch me like that,” one former employee reportedly said. “Sorry but it comes from the top,” the stand-up comedian and star of “Everybody Loves Raymond” tweeted early on Friday, tagging the Emmy Award-winning host. Actor Brad Garrett called out the host for the overall atmosphere of the show — but not the allegations in the BuzzFeed story. Leman categorically denied “any kind of sexual impropriety” in a statement. Ellen Producer Andy Lassner Returned To IG To Address The Controversy "It's been a couple of rough months." “You could definitely see the creep factor and the creepy touching.