Matthew Wright, Executive Producer of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Dies at 52

Matthew Wright, an executive producer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, has died. He was 52. Variety reported that he died on Oct. 30.

An executive producer is a senior role on a show. It means helping decide what goes on air and how each episode is put together, usually from behind the camera. On a daily talk show, that work covers guests, schedules and the many small decisions that make a broadcast run on time.

Wright worked on the show from 2006 until it ended in 2022. That is sixteen years on one programme, through a long run of daily production with a large team around him.

Ellen DeGeneres posted a tearful video tribute to him. In it she called Wright "the glue to our entire family" at the Ellen Show, according to Variety.

Andy Lassner, also an executive producer, shared photos of himself and Wright taken on the set of The Jennifer Hudson Show on Thursday, hours before Wright died. Lassner's photos were among the first public messages from colleagues after the news.

Wright spoke about his time on the show in his own words, too. On his Instagram account, @mwright1010, he said that working on "Ellen" was one of the best jobs he ever had.

Behind every talk show is a team that works to tight daily deadlines. Many of those people have gone on to other programmes, and many of them will now be remembering a colleague who spent most of his career on one show. Wright's death leaves a gap for his family, his friends and the people he worked alongside for those sixteen years.