Yesterday, we reported that Channel Nine in Australia had stopped airing “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and replaced it with reruns of the early 2000s show “Desperate Housewives.” Now, it has been revealed that “Desperate Housewives” smashed “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in the ratings on Monday, which could be the final nail in the coffin in Australia for the struggling daytime talk show.

Daily Mail reported that “Desperate Housewives” debuted in Australia to an audience of 73,000 on Monday, and it was able to hold onto a top 50 spot in the daily ratings across all networks for two consecutive days. “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” had not managed to pull this off since August 4, when it got only 49,000 viewers.

This comes after dozens of current and former employees of DeGeneres came forward to accuse her of turning a blind eye to racism, intimidation, and sexual misconduct on the set of her talk show. Major TV commentator Rob McKnight, a former senior executive at Nine, spoke out to say that he thinks the controversy surrounding DeGeneres “has come up at the perfect time during a negotiation period” and gives the broadcaster bargaining power.

“Nine are in negotiations and to bring the price down they’re showing Warner Bros. that they’re willing to walk away,” McKnight explained. “With the advertising market shrinking [due to the coronavirus recession], the focus is on prime time. I’m sure they’d like to keep Ellen, but this whole controversy has come up at the perfect time for them during a negotiation period.”

“They’ll be taking a look at the ratings of Desperate Housewives in the Ellen slot and seeing whether it adversely affects them before they walk away from the deal,” he continued. “The fact is, this is all about getting the best deal for Nine. Controversies come and go, but at the moment every dollar counts.”

This has to be particularly humiliating for DeGeneres given the fact that Australia is the home country of her wife, actress Portia de Rossi.

Last week, DeGeneres reportedly broke down during a Zoom call with over 200 employees in which she admitted that she is “not perfect.” She also said that she has realized that in the effort for the show to run as a “well-oiled machine,” sometimes leaders were not as sensitive to “human beings” as they should have been.