Ellen DeGeneres will mark her TV comeback this month with the release of a new documentary. Returning to our screens in Saving the Gorillas: Ellen's Next Adventure, the one-off special will air on Saturday, September 23 at 8PM ET/PT on the Discovery Channel.
"What begins as Portia de Rossi's simple desire to come up with a nice birthday gift for her wife, Ellen DeGeneres, snowballs into something bigger than anybody could have imagined," teases the synopsis.
"The couple find themselves embarking on one of the largest architectural and landscaping projects in the history of Rwanda, only to collide with challenges like volcanoes, earthquakes, and a global pandemic. It all culminates in a once-in-a-lifetime experience for them, their family and friends as they celebrate the opening of The Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.
"It is an adventure filled with laughter, tears, and experiences none of them ever dreamed they'd have. At the center of it is Ellen, doing things that are not only life-changing for hundreds of others, but that affect an entire nation and give the mountain gorillas a hope for survival greater than they've ever had before."
The upcoming documentary will mark Ellen's latest TV appearance, following the cancelation of her namesake talk show, which ended in May 2022.
Ahead of the show's final episode, Ellen told The Hollywood Reporter that her decision to end the show had been 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," she said in 2021.
Ellen's decision to step away followed a tumultuous period which saw the star, and others involved in the show, accused of creating a toxic work environment. BuzzFeed News' 2020 interview with 11 different employees, all of whom had decided to remain anonymous, further propelled allegations of bullying and harassment into the media sphere.
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Opening up about the reports of toxicity on set, Ellen told The Hollywood Reporter: "It was very hurtful to me. I mean, very. But if I was quitting the show because of that, I wouldn't have come back this season. So, it's not why I'm stopping but it was hard because I was sitting at home, it was summer, and I see a story that people have to chew gum before they talk to me and I'm like, 'Okay, this is hilarious.' Then I see another story of some other ridiculous thing and then it just didn't stop."
She continued: "I care tremendously. It broke my heart when I learned that people here had anything other than a fantastic experience — that people were hurt in any way. I check in now as much as I can through Zoom to different departments, and I make sure people know that if there's ever a question or ever anything, they can come to me, and I don't know why that was never considered before.
"I'm not a scary person. I'm really easy to talk to. So, we've all learned from things that we didn't realize — or I didn't realize — were happening. I just want people to trust and know that I am who I appear to be."