‘Bachelorette’ Star Says Ellen DeGeneres Treated Her ‘Idiot’ Guests Like They Worked for Her
Ellen DeGeneres always made sure to tell her audience, “Be kind to one another” before ending each episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which is better than her usual address to her reality TV star guests of, “Are you a drunk idiot?”
TV personality Ali Fedotowsky began her career in entertainment as a contestant on The Bachelor and, later, the star of The Bachelorette, which is a pretty par-for-the-course background for the average Ellen guest. As such, when Fedotowsky made her obligatory appearance on Ellen following her Bachelor breakout in 2010, she assumed that the host would bring her “be kind,” soft-lighting, everybody-gets-a-puppy on-screen personality to the interview and treat Fedotowsky gently. But, like so many interns during DeGeneres’ 20-year reign of daytime TV terror, Fedotowsky found the experience of actually speaking to the talk show megastar and feeling her piercing blue eyes pick her apart intimidating and slightly demoralizing.
Don't Miss
During a recent appearance on the podcast Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe, Fedotowsky said of her Ellen appearance that sparked an embarrassing viral moment, “She made me feel not great.” Imagine how Fedotowsky would have felt if she had a fear of snakes.
“It’s not that she was mean, per se,” Fedotowsky clarified of her time with DeGenres. “She just made me feel stupid.”
Fedotowsky recalled the 2010 interview where DeGeneres addressed her nervous laughter with what in hindsight sure seems to be simmering disdain, saying, “I was so excited to be on the show. I don’t think she’s a bad person, I just think that sometimes when you do a job like that all day, every single day for years, you’re just kind of over it.”
“One, she’s talking to people who are crafted,” Fedotowsky said of DeGeneres’ typical guests, seemingly forgetting that, along with occasionally interviewing A-list celebrities, DeGeneres’ bread and butter was bringing on every small-town internet microcelebrity who went viral for dressing their cat up as George Clooney and making them seem interesting and relatable. “Here I am, this 24-year-old, famous for no reason, on her show, she’s probably like, ‘I’ve got to talk to one of these idiots again.’”
“I went on the show and I was dancing, you know how everyone comes out dancing?” Fedotowsky continued. “I was trying to be funny and personable. Instead of laughing with me, she was laughing at me. You know what I mean?”
Fedotowsky summarized the embarrassing experience of having DeGeneres ask her “Are you drunk?” in front of millions of Americans, "I felt really stupid."
I imagine the booker who put Fedotowsky on Ellen felt even worse once the talk show host was done filling his car with rattlesnakes.
