Ellen Degeneres has given $1 million to fans in the audience for a taping of her talk show.
The 60-year-old talk show host has been partnering with cereal brand Cheerios to encourage people to get involved in the One Million Acts of Good campaign, and during Thursday’s (01.02.18) taping of ‘The Ellen Degeneres Show’, the star surprised her audience – which was made up entirely of people who had taken part in the campaign – with a special gift.
She said: "I wanna take a moment to say, everybody in the audience is here for a special reason. All season long I’ve partnered with Cheerios to encourage people to do One Million Acts of Good, and if you’re here in my audience, you helped us reach that goal."
Ellen then told the audience to check under their seats to see if they had a box of the breakfast snack, as every lucky chair would be winning a prize. When every person in the 400 capacity studio lifted up a box, Ellen revealed they would be getting an equal share of a whopping $1 million.
She continued: "Thanks to every single person in this audience, it is filled with goodness and we have reached one million acts of good because of all of you. So, I wanna do something that we’ve never done before. This is big, okay?
"If you have a box of Cheerios under your seat, I’m going to give you a special surprise gift. So check and see if you have a box of Cheerios under your seat. What a coincidence that all of you would get a box of Cheerios.
"You’re all going to share this gift. It’s the biggest gift I’ve ever given anybody, ever. And I hope you continue to pay it forward and share all the good. Hold onto your Cheerios because all of you are splitting one million dollars! That’s a lot of money!"
Among the people in the audience were a teacher who donated a kidney to a student’s mother, a couple who drive 800 miles to deliver supplies during Hurricane Harvey, and a man who quit his job to start a sanctuary for farm animals.
Ellen’s studio holds 400 people, so if the venue was full at the time, each person walked away with $2,500.
Ellen Degeneres gives $1 million to fans
