"The Ellen DeGeneres Show" has signed off a three-year renewal with 10 NBC-owned stations, ensuring that the talk show will continue to air on their stations until 2019 to 2020.
"For more than a decade, 'Ellen' has anchored the daytime lineups of the NBC-owned stations, offering our viewers a great afternoon show, delivering a strong lead in for our early evening newscasts and helping to launch new hits," said NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations President Valari Staab.
Warner Bros.' "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" has been running on NBC-owned stations since 2003 and has been recognized as the top-rated daytime show since Oprah Winfrey ended her talk show four years ago.
"Day in and day out Ellen delivers the best show on television. Ellen and her team produce a completely unique and exciting hour, which is appointment television for viewers everywhere," said Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution President Ken Werner.
The three-year renewal comes as the NBCUniversal Television Distribution confirmed the cancellation of the "The Meredith Vieira Show" at the close of this season.
"The Meredith Vieira Show" started off in September 2014 with stellar ratings. Eventually, viewership began to tank after more than a decade on NBC. Recently, the show experienced a 25-percent drop in viewership causing NBC to take drastic measures. However, Vieira won't be out of a job as she is slated to cover the summer Olympics in Rio De Janiero, Brazil.
To fill the hole in the daytime schedule left by the cancellation of "The Merdeith Vieira Show", NBC stations in New York, Los Angeles and two other markets will add 4 p.m. newscasts. The newscast launches mean that "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" will be aired an hour earlier in New York and L.A. Instead of the usual 4 p.m. slot, the show will run at 3 p.m.
