Ellen DeGeneres At The Top Of ‘Out’ Magazine’s Power 50 List
Ellen DeGeneres was named the most powerful gay celebrity in America when she was awarded the number one spot on Out magazine’s 2014 Power List, reports E! Online.
The Power List is Out‘s annual ranking of the most influential LGBT voices within American culture.
The magazine’s reasoning behind giving DeGeneres, 56, the number one spot?
“Everybody loves Ellen, and that’s one of the reasons she’s regained the top spot,” Out explained on their site. “In March, The Ellen DeGeneres Show shattered its own 10-year ratings record in the episode that immediately followed her Academy Awards hosting gig, which also gave the awards its best ratings since 2004. And her star-studded Oscars selfie almost shut down Twitter when the pic became the most retweeted ever.”
At the top of the Power List last year was Apple CEO Tim Cook. He was still on the list this year; he just came in second behind DeGeneres.
After coming out in February, Ellen Paige made it onto the Power List for the first time. Paige was number 29, while Rachel Maddow was third, Neil Patrick Harris was seventh, Andy Cohen was eighth, Robin Roberts was tenth, Anderson Cooper was fourteenth and Jane Lynch was twentieth.
Talk show host and comedian, DeGeneres was actually second on the Power List in 2013, according to NY Daily News. What happened over the last year for her to take over the number one spot?
To begin with, DeGeneres’ ratings for her self-titled daytime talk show skyrocketed. Then, of course, she hosted a highly successful Academy Awards telecast, which had the most viewers in almost a decade. Not to mention her idea to break Twitter with a selfie that ended up including giant stars such as Jennifer Lawrence and Brad Pitt at the Oscars. Who could forget that?
While DeGeneres’ was brought up as a possible replacement for David Letterman after his retirement in 2015, the spot was ultimately given to Stephen Colbert. DeGeneres says she has no problem with that.
“I am very flattered but I really love doing my daytime show,” she told her studio audience during a filming of the show shortly after Letterman’s announcement. She added how “different” late-night TV is.
So, it appears for now that DeGeneres won’t be going anywhere.
[Image Via Google]
