Ellen DeGeneres Launches New Digital Network and Unveils First Original Programming Slate at 2016 Digital Content Newfronts

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Warner Bros. Television

May 04, 2016, 17:55 ET


New York and Burbank, Calif. (PRWEB) May 04, 2016 -- Emmy®-winning talk show host, producer and social media powerhouse Ellen DeGeneres is continuing her expansion into the original digital content business in a significant way with the announcement of the creation of the Ellen Digital Network and the unveiling of its first-ever programming slate today at the 2016 Digital Content NewFronts. An Ellen Digital Ventures initiative launched in partnership with the Warner Bros. Television Group, the Ellen Digital Network will build upon the success of Ellen’s digital destination ellentube and The Ellen DeGeneres Show website EllenTV.com, as well as her official YouTube channel, wildly popular social media following and popular game Heads Up! to create a robust, premium cross-platform advertising and integration opportunity for brands to associate with the compelling and engaging original content Ellen produces and distributes, in a positive, high-quality environment.

The Ellen Digital Network will curate all aspects of the Ellen brand combined with original programming and user-generated content. The Ellen Digital Network has signed a content development deal with social media superstar Tyler Oakley, with Ellen and Tyler set to collaborate on a range of original digital projects with an aim toward developing projects for television as well.

In addition to the content partnership with Oakley, the inaugural Ellen Digital Network programming slate will feature an original Damn, Daniel series for Snapchat; Ellen’s Pet Dish, an animated series featuring Ellen’s pets from Warner Bros.’ digital production studio Blue Ribbon Content; the return of 4-year-old viral sensation Brielle; new episodes of Dance Challenge; #MadeByYou, featuring the best user-generated content from ellentube; and popular Ellen Show game Epic or Fail; and more.

Ellen DeGeneres said: “I’m so excited for the Ellen Digital Network. I’ll get to showcase amazing talents like Tyler Oakley and tWitch. Plus, I’ll finally prove to the world that my pets can speak in human voices.”

Content Slate

  • Damn, Daniel Boyz: Ellen teams up with Damn, Daniel creators Joshua Holz and Daniel Lara for an all-new original series featuring the Internet phenomenon debuting on Snapchat later this year.
  • Ellen’s Pet Dish: From Warner Bros.’ digital production unit Blue Ribbon Content, Ellen’s Pet Dish is an all-new animated series that will take viewers behind the scenes at Ellen’s home. What do Ellen and Portia’s beloved pets do all day while Ellen and Portia are away? They watch TV of course! Ellen’s Pet Dish chronicles their animated adventures, sassy small talk and comedic commentary on clips from The Ellen DeGeneres Show. There might even be some pet guest stars stopping by…
  • She’s Brielle-iant: This original series for ellentube features 4-year-old whiz kid and The Ellen DeGeneres Show favorite Brielle Milla showcasing her smarts on topics ranging from science’s periodic table to the human body, world countries, experiments and more. The first She’s Brielle-iant episode generated more than 18 million views.
  • tWitch & Allison’s Dance Challenge: Young dancers go head-to-head for the opportunity of a lifetime in this dance-competition series hosted and judged by famed choreographers Stephen “tWitch” Boss (The Ellen DeGeneres Show DJ) and his wife, Allison Holker of Dancing with the Stars. The first original series for ellentube, tWitch & Allison’s Dance Challenge features six incredible kid dancers vying for a chance to perform on an episode of Ellen. The series has generated more than four million video views to date.
  • #MadeByYou: From sleepy pets to mess-making toddlers and more, Ellen loves sharing the best videos sent in by her TV show viewers and online fans. Ellen’s team curates the best of these clips to create weekly episodes of #MadeByYou which debut on ellentube. In addition to the user-generated content, compilations also feature best-of moments from The Ellen DeGeneres Show, selected by Ellen and her production team. Episodes currently have more than 32 million views.
  • Epic or Fail: Ellen’s favorite game to play on her show has become a new series for ellentube, hosted by beloved shorts-wearing Ellen Show staffer Andy Zenor. The program showcases user-generated videos and allows viewers to play along in real time, guessing whether the results of the stunts in the videos will be an epic success or a massive fail.

Reach of the Ellen Digital Network

The Ellen Digital Network will harness the power of Ellen’s massive audience online and in social media, where she consistently ranks as the top TV personality, and continues to grow at a record-setting pace. Ellen ranks as the #1 creator of digital content online, with more than 1.1 billion total cross-platform views according to Tubular’s November 2015 survey.

  • On YouTube, TheEllenShow channel averages more than 300 million views per month from its nearly 16 million subscribers; it has generated more than 8.5 billion video views overall
  • On Twitter, @TheEllenShow boasts more than 59 million followers, ranking as the #1 most-followed TV personality (and #7 on all of Twitter)
  • Ellen ranks as the #1 TV host on Facebook, with more than 24 million “likes” for the show’s official page at http://www.facebook.com/ellentv and more than one billion video views to date
  • On Instagram, @TheEllenShow ranks as the #1 TV show, with more than 28 million followers
  • On Snapchat, Ellen averages a million views per day
  • On Vine, Vine.co/Ellen has 3.5 million followers and nearly 340 million views to date.
  • In social gaming, Ellen’s Heads Up! app ranked as the #1 paid game app of 2014 and 2015 in Apple’s App Store and has more than 24 million downloads to date; follow-up game Heads Up! Kids launched last week and hit #1 this past weekend
  • Video destination ellentube.com and official talk show website EllenTV.com generate more than 105 million page views monthly

About Ellen Digital Ventures
Ellen Digital Ventures (EDV) is a business initiative created by Ellen DeGeneres and the Warner Bros. Television Group that extends Ellen’s award-winning television franchise into a robust digital business, leveraging her vast social and gaming audiences. ellentube is an EDV venture, focused on the growing shortform video space, delivering fresh entertainment daily to mobile users globally. Psych! is the first free-to-play game to launch from EDV, following on the success of Heads Up!, which was the #1 Paid App of 2015 in Apple’s App Store. Founded in 2014, EDV is headed by digital industry veteran Jill Braff, who serves as General Manager and works in conjunction with Ellen show executive producers Mary Connelly, Ed Glavin, Andy Lassner and Kevin A. Leman II.

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Contacts:

Scott Rowe
(818) 954-5806, Scott.Rowe(at)warnerbros(dot)com

Tammy Golihew
(818) 954-4855, Tammy.Golihew(at)warnerbros(dot)com

Melissa Little Padgitt
(310) 617-8023, Melissa.LittlePadgitt(at)ellentv(dot)com

Erin Kyle
(818) 954-5574, Erin.Kyle(at)ellentv(dot)com

Robert Pietranton, Warner Bros. Television, +1 (818) 954-4556, [email protected]