What Makes the Ellen DeGeneres Show a Hit?

Review - The Ellen DeGeneres Show - Thursday, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm -NBC

Guests: The Crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, Neil Patrick Harris, & Rihanna

First and foremost, Ellen DeGeneres makes the Ellen DeGeneres Show a hit. She is one of the most innovative, versatile, and gifted comedians of our times. Beyond this, Ellen's Show is carefully designed and orchestrated. Here are a few things I noticed as I watched this morning's show.

Opening - Ellen's Show opened with the audience clapping, cheering, and going wild. Ellen allowed this to continue for a minute to "set the mood."

Monologue - The first thing Ellen offered her viewers was a short monologue. This makes perfect sense as Ellen is an experienced stand-up comedian and it is one of her strong points. She began by asking people to take a deep breath, stressing their enthusiasm to her TV viewers. Then, she politely thanked the audience for being there, a standard PR move. Her opening joke was on herself. Humbleness makes the audience comfortable. She joked about her love for pantsuits and buying and selling houses. She rolled this right into jokes about realtors placing pictures of themselves in ads. Then, she delivered a zinger about selling a disgusting shack with a low-cut blouse. Sex and sexism are always a draw. Actual pictures of realtors were used to fill in her monologue time as she accompanied them with jokes. All in all, well done!

Billboard - A would-be realtor bus stop billboard of a young, sexy, Ellen hit the stage. It read, "She's Got Curb Appeal." I found it to have no appeal.

Song & Dance - Ellen quickly moved right into her signature dance to the song, "Brick House" by The Commodores. Good move!

Rosh Hashanah - A Happy New Year Wish went out to the Jewish community - very politically correct.