r/television • u/Gato1980 • 13h ago

Ellen DeGeneres Is Unapologetic, Unrelatable and Totally Insufferable in Her New Netflix Special 'For Your Approval'

https://www.cracked.com/article_43701_ellen-degeneres-is-unapologetic-unrelatable-and-totally-insufferable-in-her-new-netflix-special.html
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u/Moonfishin 13h ago edited 12h ago

About 10 years ago, my ex got a job interview to be a PA on the WB lot for the Ellen show. She was over the moon at the opportunity.

When she arrived on the lot, they had her sign an NDA/releases and wait in a green room. When they called her, she walked out on stage to a live studio test audience. Turns out, she was on the taping of a pilot for a new game show under Ellen's production company, and the interview was a bait-and-switch!

She proceeded to bawl her eyes out in front of everyone, because she had been searching for a production job for months in LA. There were other applicants there, including a few who had taken time off work or used LA public transportation to get there.

The producers (having finally connected to their humanity) felt so bad for their shitty tactics, they gave her a job as a PA on Ellen. But it was humiliating for her and for the others, especially those that got nothing out of the experience. Shockingly, the show never aired.

She lasted 6 months there and had some crazy stories about how much Ellen sucked. Apparently Kevin Nealon and Conan are angels, though.

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u/I_just_made 12h ago

I feel like that should be illegal.

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u/WhosThatYousThat 11h ago

Agreed. There was a full season TV show that aired on Netflix where the premise was offering people jobs and then pranking them. One of the kids from Stranger Things hosted it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prank_Encounters

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u/NachoNutritious 11h ago

I literally just saw a video a few days ago from someone that claimed to have been baited by a show like this. He applied for and got a job, he showed up and then a prank started. He left halfway through and they tried to chase him down so he'd sign papers letting them use the footage for $200, instead he contacted an employment lawyer and settled with them for $5k. He said he had to wait several years in order to be able to talk about it, I'm curious now if it was this show specifically.

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u/WhosThatYousThat 11h ago

instead he contacted an employment lawyer and settled with them for $5k.

Nice!

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u/JarJarJarMartin 10h ago

Nah, he should’ve gotten more. The damages need to be punitive enough to stop that nonsense. Make an example out of those assholes.

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u/WhosThatYousThat 10h ago

Didn't take much to convince me. If the offer was a job, they should be on the hook for at least a year's salary.

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u/SlappySecondz 2h ago

You'd have to be able to prove that you came somewhere within the ballpark of suffering a year's salary worth of damages.

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u/Dulwilly 10h ago

He applied for and got a job

That could easily be a week or two of job searching lost and maybe even turning down actual jobs. $5k is on the low end of what this prank could cost a random person.

Calling the victim in for a fake job interview is still awful but not nearly as costly.

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u/johannthegoatman 8h ago

I saw the same video, pretty sure it was $50k

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u/loveparamore 50m ago

Do you have a link to the video? 

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u/psychohistorian8 11h ago

yikes that show sounds terrible

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u/WhosThatYousThat 11h ago

Basically a knock-off Scare Tactics.

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u/DoinItDirty 7h ago

Yeah it was a dumpy version. I loved Tracy Morgan… this was disappointing

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u/Monkeywrench08 9h ago

That is shitty. 

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u/OldManFire11 10h ago

I refuse to believe that that show isn't 100% scripted. It is so painfully obvious that the situations those people are in are completely fake. Even accounting for total idiots who are extremely gullible and conflict avoidant, there is no way that the producers would be able to find people believing their stupid bullshit.

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u/Retreatingwings101 8h ago

Wasn't Nathan for You also guilty of something similar? Offering people jobs that weren't real and were just part of a big skit 

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u/DoinItDirty 7h ago

I’ve seen every episode. I’ve never heard of someone not getting paid. The closest I can think is convincing people that working for his moving company was the same as working out. I could be forgetting something though.