Former Producer Says Ellen DeGeneres Was Part Of A ‘Culture Of Fear’ Behind The Show

Hedda Muskat, a former producer with The Ellen DeGeneres Show, alleged that the host was part of a “culture of fear” behind the scenes, The Wrap reported.

Muskat is the first producer to have worked with DeGeneres to open up publicly about their experiences on the program as reports continue to surface about her sometimes “toxic” behavior. She started working for DeGeneres in 2003 as Ellen was still developing. While she was pushed out a year and a half later, she said that in her time, she noticed that there seemed to be a negative culture developing among the staff, led by the people at the head of the program.

“I had never seen this before,” she said. “I had never been around a toxic host.”

Muskat, who previously worked on The Howie Mandel Show and The Martin Short Show, recalled an incident when executive producer Ed Glavin screamed at a member of the staff during a meeting. Glavin’s face allegedly turned red as he yelled, to the shock of those in the meeting.

She said that she waited for DeGeneres to correct the situation, but she didn’t.

“I was waiting for Ellen to say something. ‘Whoa, Ed, don’t talk like that,'” she said.

“Do you know what she did? She giggled,” she added. “She crossed her legs up on the chair and she said, ‘Well, I guess every production needs their dog’ … And from then we knew. Ed was going to be the barking dog.”

That, she says, was one of the early incidents that let the staff know what kind of environment they would be working in. She said she found the situation distasteful — as did other members of the crew, whose faces went “stiff” after the exchange.

“We’re professionals; we’re adults. We don’t need a dog to get us to do our jobs … She was the only one giggling.”

Reports about the 62-year-old and the negative environment on the set emerged in March after BuzzFeed published accounts about alleged racism, sexual misconduct, and other toxic behaviors.

Since then, rumors have been swirling about whether or not the titular host will stay with the series or if she will be booted out — or choose to leave on her own.

As The Inquisitr previously reported, one source says that DeGeneres feels betrayed and wants to walk away from the program that helped make her a household name.