ELLEN DEGENERES BRINGS HER COMEDIC GIFTS TO THE WB NETWORK

Burbank, CA January 16, 2006

MULTI-EMMY-WINNING COMEDIENNE/ACTRESS/AUTHOR WILL TEAM WITH HER BROTHER, VANCE DEGENERES, TO CREATE A HALF-HOUR COMEDY PILOT SCRIPT BASED ON A FAMILY AND ITS PETS

Ellen DeGeneres, the multiple Award-Winning Comedienne/Actress/Author/Talk Show Host, will bring her comedic vision to The WB Network with a pilot script for a new half-hour, live-action comedy, it was announced today at the Television Critics� Association Press Tour by The WB's President, Entertainment, David Janollari.

Ms. DeGeneres will team with her brother, writer Vance DeGeneres, to write the currently untitled script, which will depict family life from two different perspectives: both the people and the pets will have a voice in the series. Ms. DeGeneres will also voice the family dog.

�Joining forces with my brother has long been a dream of ours. Of course, that dream used to involve world domination. But a show on The WB works, too,� said Ms. DeGeneres. �I'm really looking forward to working with Vance on a project that doesn't involve a late Mother's Day gift for our mom.�

Vance DeGeneres is equally excited about the project. �I think it's great that Ellen and I are finally getting a chance to create a show together,� he said. �Over the years we've talked about creating something together, but it didn't work out until now with The WB. The good thing about working together is that, although she's a big star, Ellen is also my younger sister, and I think you know what that means � our mom settles any creative arguments. Mom is tough, but fair. And she makes us soup.�

Aside from hosting the third season of �The Ellen DeGeneres Show,� which has been awarded a total of nine Daytime Emmy awards for its first and second seasons, the multi-talented DeGeneres also won the hearts of movie audiences when she lent her voice to the character of Dory, the short-term-memory-challenged fish, in the hit 2004 film �Finding Nemo.� Her most recent comedy tour, entitled the Here and Now Tour, featured a performance in New York which was taped for an HBO special. This show was nominated for two Emmy Awards. Her most recent book, �The Funny Thing Is...� hit the New York Times bestseller list upon release. DeGeneres was nominated for a Grammy Award for the audio version of the book. DeGeneres� first sitcom, the groundbreaking �Ellen,� ran from 1994-1998. She received Emmy Award nominations for Best Actress every year the show was on the air. In addition, DeGeneres was awarded the prestigious Peabody Award and an Emmy Award for writing the critically acclaimed Puppy Episode, in which her character came out as a gay woman to a record 46 million viewers. In addition to an award winning career as a standup comic, Ms. DeGeneres has hosted the Emmy Awards, the Grammy Awards, The VH1 Honors and �The Saturday Night Live Christmas Special.�

Mr. DeGeneres was a correspondent for �The Daily Show with Jon Stewart� for over two years and more recently on �The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson.� Behind the camera, he has produced many shows, and was most recently supervising producer on �Pat Croce: Moving In,� as well as co-executive producer on a comedy pilot presentation starring Vitamin C, and co-executive producer on a recent NBC comedy/reality pilot. He also created, with Alex Herschlag, former executive producer of �Will & Grace,� a parody talk show that aired on E!, �The Fourth Floor Show.� He was a staff writer on �Ellen,� as well as a writer on the Emmy Award shows in 1994 and 2005. He was also a writer on the 1996 and 1997 Grammy Award shows.